THE STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT PROCESS SHOULD DELIVER GREATER SURETY FOR BOTH URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND CONSERVATION OUTCOMES THAN THE CURRENT PROJECT BY PROJECT ASSESSMENT PROCESS.
Last week I spoke at a national Biodiversity Conference to highlight some of the challenges of trying to manage Western Australia’s rapid population growth within an ecologically sensitive footprint.
The South West of WA is home to Australia’s only internationally recognised biodiversity hot spot, which contains large numbers of threatened species found nowhere else. WA is home to 141 of Australia’s 207 mammal species, as well as 439 reptile species, 1600 known fish species and 12,000 known species of vascular plants. The threatened species listings released this month brought the number of recognised threatened species of flora and fauna in WA to 653, an increase of 15 species.
WA also has the fastest population growth rate in Australia with 1,400 people per week calling WA home. According to World Bank listings, if WA were a country, it would rank eight in the world for the fastest rate of growth behind Qatar, Liberia, Niger, Belize, Burkina Faso, Uganda, and Timor-Leste.
Because managing our rapid urban development in an ecologically significant area is such a key issue, UDIA works closely with state and federal government agencies. In August 2011, the Western Australian Ministers for Planning and Environment and the Commonwealth Minister for Environment announced that a strategic assessment of the Perth and Peel regions of Western Australia would be undertaken in accordance with section 146 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
The strategic assessment will assess the impacts of development outlined in the State Government’s strategic planning document, Directions 2031 and Beyond. The Directions 2031 sets out long term goals to promote housing affordability within the Perth and Peel regions and guides detailed planning and delivery of housing, infrastructure and services to accommodate Perth’s expected population growth.
Putting together a strategic assessment is no small feat and the initial documentation is not expected to be released until 2013. The project involves extensive analysis of areas for urban development, for raw material extraction (for fill and limestone), transport and other infrastructure requirements as well as identifying the conservation areas for threatened species.
Along with confirming areas for development, the strategic assessment process will outline any requirements, including offsets. Whilst the detail is yet to be finalised, in principle, the approach should deliver greater surety for both urban development and conservation outcomes than the current project by project assessment. Hopefully a win-win outcome for all West Australians.