Compliance and complicity: An assessment of the success of land clearance legislation in New South Wales

Land clearance regulations were introduced in New South Wales in 1995 with the aim of reducing native vegetation clearance on private land and to contribute to nationwide efforts to reduce land degradation, the enhanced greenhouse effect and threats to biodiversity. Although several landholders and contractors were prosecuted early on, few cases have been prosecuted since 1998. Insufficient monitoring and enforcement are problems frequently encountered in the regulatory field in general, and it appears New South Wales' land clearance legislation is no different. This assessment shows that the aims of the regulations are unlikely to be achieved. Too much land is approved for clearance and post-clearance revegetation works are favoured at the expense of protecting remnants. Monitoring is heavily tree-centred and implementation is suffering due to a pragmatic but nonetheless selfdefeating political response to stakeholder influence. Satellite data shows that land clearance has declined in New South Wales. If this is due to the prosecution of the early cases then there is little reason for it to decrease any further once it becomes known that the biggest implement in the enforcement toolbox is no longer being used.