Purpose:

The purpose of this Act is to establish a legal and administrative structure to enable and promote the conservation of Victoria’s native flora and fauna and to provide for a choice of procedures which can be used for the conservation, management or control of flora and fauna and the management of potentially threatening processes.

Objectives:

• To guarantee that all taxa of Victoria’s flora and fauna, other than taxa specified in the Excluded List, can persist and improve in the wild and retain their capacity to adapt to environmental change.
• To prevent taxa and communities of flora and fauna from becoming threatened and to recover threatened taxa and communities so their conservation status improves.
• To protect, conserve, restore and enhance biodiversity, including flora and fauna and their habitats, genetic diversity, ecological communities, and ecological processes.
• To identify and mitigate the impacts of potentially threatening processes to address the important underlying causes of biodiversity decline.
• To ensure the use of biodiversity as a natural resource is ecologically sustainable.
• To identify and conserve areas of Victoria in respect of which critical habitat determinations are made.

Key Provisions:

• Establishment and maintenance of the Threatened List for threatened taxa of flora and fauna and threatened communities of flora or fauna, including their extinction risk and category of threat (Section 10).
• Establishment and maintenance of the Processes List for potentially threatening processes (Section 11).
• Procedures for the public nomination, assessment, and recommendation process for the listing or delisting of taxa, communities, and processes (Sections 16A-16H).
• Requirement for the Secretary to prepare and implement a Biodiversity Strategy, including proposals, targets, and a framework for monitoring and evaluating its implementation (Section 17).
• Obligation for the Secretary to prepare Action Statements for any listed taxon, community of flora or fauna, or potentially threatening process, outlining conservation and management actions (Section 19).
• Authority for the Secretary to determine and manage critical habitats, requiring public consultation and publishing determinations (Sections 20-20C).
• Procedures for the Secretary to make and review management plans for any taxon or community of flora or fauna or potentially threatening process (Sections 21-24).
• Empowerment of the Minister to make Habitat Conservation Orders for conserving, protecting, or managing critical habitats or proposed critical habitats, which may include prohibitions, permit requirements, and requirements for damage repair (Sections 26-27).
• Regulation of the taking, trading in, keeping, moving, or processing of protected flora through the issuance of licences, permits by the Secretary, or authorisations by the Governor in Council (Sections 47-48B).
• Regulation of the taking, trading in, or keeping of fish that are members of listed taxa of fauna or listed communities of flora or fauna, through licences, permits, or Governor in Council authorisations (Sections 52-53B).
• Powers of authorised officers to enforce compliance, including entry, search, seizure of things, taking samples, and requiring the production of documents (Section 57).
• Provisions for the Secretary to accept enforceable undertakings from persons who have contravened or allegedly contravened the Act or regulations, to address the contravention (Section 62A).

Evidence of Compliance Requirements For Agricultural Organisations:

• Obtaining and Complying with Authorisations:
  • Action Required: Obtain a licence or permit from the Secretary to lawfully take (other than for the purpose of controlling), trade in, keep, move, or process protected flora (Section 48).
  • Action Required: Obtain a licence or permit from the Secretary to lawfully take, trade in, or keep any fish that is a member or part of a listed taxon of fauna or a listed community of flora or fauna (Section 53).
  • Documentation: Submit a written application to the Secretary for a licence or permit (Section 54).
  • Action Required: Strictly comply with all terms and limitations specified in any licence or permit issued under the Act (Section 56).
  • Action Required: Adhere to all terms and conditions fixed in any Governor in Council Order authorising the taking, trading in, keeping, moving, or processing of protected flora (Section 48B) or fish (Section 53B).
  • Record-keeping: Keep records as required by regulations for all activities undertaken under licences and permits, using prescribed methods, and produce these records when required (Section 69(1)(h)).
• Prohibited Activities and Impact Management:
  • Action Required: Refrain from taking, trading in, keeping, moving, or processing restricted use protected flora for sale or personal use, unless specifically excepted (e.g., authorised by a licence/permit/authorisation, or taken from private land not for sale) (Section 47).
  • Action Required: Ensure that any activity involving restricted use protected flora does not cause, or is not likely to cause, a significant detrimental impact on the restricted use protected flora, unless specifically excepted (e.g., authorised, or accidentally taken despite reasonable care) (Section 47A).
    • Measurement Standards: Factors considered for “significant detrimental impact” include: notable nature of impact, context (region/locality), adverse effect on scientific/cultural/historical resource, severity (unique characteristics of flora/fish/community/geographic area), cumulative impact, direct/indirect consequence, and impact on ecological interactions, re-establishment, adaptation, conservation, ecological character, genetic diversity, or future conservation efforts (Section 3(4)).
  • Action Required: Do not take, trade in, keep, move, or process protected flora (other than restricted use protected flora) without appropriate authorisation or an applicable exception (e.g., private land not for sale, public authority management agreement) (Section 47B).
  • Action Required: Ensure that any activity involving protected flora (other than restricted use protected flora) does not cause, or is not likely to cause, a significant detrimental impact on the relevant taxon or community, unless specifically excepted (e.g., authorised, or accidentally taken despite reasonable care, or public authority management agreement) (Section 47C).
  • Action Required: Do not abandon or release any prescribed flora into the wild without a permit from the Secretary (Section 49(1)).
  • Action Required: Mark any flora as required by regulations, in the prescribed circumstances and manner (Section 49(2)).
  • Financial Obligation: Pay royalties as determined by the Secretary for the taking of wild flora from Crown land (Section 50).
  • Action Required: Refrain from taking, trading in, or keeping any fish that is a member or part of a listed taxon of fauna or a listed community of flora or fauna, unless authorised by a licence, permit, or authorisation (Section 52).
  • Action Required: Ensure that any activity involving fish that is a member or part of a listed taxon of fauna or a listed community of flora or fauna does not cause, or is not likely to cause, a significant detrimental impact on that listed taxon or community, unless authorised or unintentionally taken and immediately returned to natural habitat with least possible injury/damage (Section 52A).
• Habitat Conservation Orders Compliance:
  • Action Required: Strictly comply with the requirements and prohibitions of any habitat conservation order (Section 32).
  • Action Required: Obtain a permit from the Minister for any activity, land use, or development within a critical habitat or proposed critical habitat, or an adjacent area, if required by a habitat conservation order (Section 27(1)©, 27(2)(b)).
  • Action Required: Undertake and complete any required repairs to damage caused to a critical habitat or proposed critical habitat since notice of the determination or proposal was given (Section 27(1)(e)).
  • Time frames: Habitat conservation orders remain in force for a period not exceeding 10 years (Section 27(4)). An application for a permit must be determined within 45 days (Section 36(2)).
  • Reporting Requirements: Landholders and other affected parties may make submissions on proposed critical habitat determinations within at least 30 days after receiving notice (Section 20B(2)). Submissions on habitat conservation orders may be made within at least 30 days after receipt of notice (Section 29(2)).
• Enforcement and Officer Cooperation:
  • Action Required: Allow authorised officers to enter land (excluding residences without a warrant), buildings (not occupied as residences), or vehicles at reasonable times to check compliance with the Act or related instruments (Section 57(2)(a)).
  • Action Required: Allow authorised officers to search any land, buildings (not occupied as residences), or vehicles (Section 57(2)(b)).
  • Action Required: Allow authorised officers to inspect equipment, machinery, implements, plants, animals, enclosures, or other goods (Section 57(2)(d)).
  • Action Required: Stop a moving vehicle when required by an authorised officer (Section 57(2)(e)).
  • Action Required: Answer questions posed by an authorised officer, unless the answer would tend to incriminate the person (Section 57(2)(f), Section 58(3)).
  • Action Required: Produce any document, sample, plant, animal, or other thing when required by an authorised officer, typically within a period of not less than 14 days after the request (Section 57(2)(h)-(i), Section 57(3), Section 58(2)(b)(ii)).
  • Action Required: Comply with a written retention notice from an authorised officer, requiring that a thing believed to be in contravention of the Act be kept in the person’s possession and not sold or disposed of, for the specified period (up to 90 days, extendable by the Secretary) (Section 57G).
  • Action Required: Do not wilfully assault, obstruct, threaten, or intimidate an authorised officer exercising powers under the Act (Section 58(1)).
  • Action Required: Do not contravene a lawful direction, order, or requirement given by an authorised officer (Section 58(2)(a)).
  • Action Required: Provide name and place of residence when asked by an authorised officer (Section 58(2)(b)(i)).
  • Action Required: Do not destroy, alter, or remove notices placed by an authorised officer (Section 58(2)©).
  • Action Required: Do not destroy, damage, interfere with, or remove any matter or thing done by an authorised officer in accordance with their powers (Section 58(2)(d)).
  • Action Required: Do not interfere with any notice, marker, or equipment used for the purposes of the Act (Section 59).
  • Inspection or Audit Requirements: Authorised officers have powers of entry, search, seizure, and sample taking to ascertain compliance (Section 57).
• Remedies and Undertakings:
  • Action Required: If convicted of an offence involving destruction of or damage to flora, fauna, or a critical habitat, carry out restoration work as ordered by the Court (Section 61).
  • Financial Obligation: If convicted of an offence involving destruction of or damage to flora, fauna, or a critical habitat, pay compensation to the Secretary as ordered by the Court (Section 62).
  • Action Required: If the Secretary accepts a written enforceable undertaking, comply with its terms, which may include ceasing specific behaviours or activities, remediating harm, carrying out specified conservation projects, or taking actions to reduce future contraventions (Section 62A(3),(4)).
  • Reporting Requirements: Report to the Secretary on the progress of complying with an enforceable undertaking as required by its terms (Section 62A(3)(iv)).

Metadata Keywords:

Flora, Fauna, Conservation, Biodiversity, Victoria, Legislation, Agriculture, Environmental Management, Protected Species, Habitat, Fisheries

Publication Information:

Authorised Version No. 048 Incorporating amendments as at 1 January 2022

Agricultural Industry Alignment:

Beef & Veal, Chicken, Coarse Grains, Cotton, Dairy, Eggs, Fisheries, Forestry, Horticulture, Oilseeds, Pig, Sheep Meat, Sugar, Wheat, Wine, Wool.

Date Added to database:

This document was parsed and added to the database on 25-07-2025

URL:

https://content.legislation.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-12/88-47aa048%20authorised.pdf →