Swan Coastal Plain South – Draft Management Plan 2014

The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) and the Conservation Commission of Western Australia have recently released for public comment the Swan Coastal Plain South – Draft Management Plan 2014 (Management Plan).

The Management Plan seeks to give broad direction to the use, development and protection of parks, reserves and a small number of private landholdings which have high conservation values on the Swan Coastal Plain, stretching from Perth in the north to Busselton in the south, for the next 10 years.

Key elements of the Management Plan include:

• protecting the Peel-Yalgorup and Vasse-Wonnerup RAMSAR wetland systems;
• promoting and enhancing the long term stability of tuart stands;
• gaining knowledge about, and controlling invasive species;
• understanding hydrology and maintaining or improving water balances;
• managing species and ecological communities of significance; and
• identifying proposed changes to the classification of reserves, parks and freehold lots within the study area.

The Management Plan will be most valuable to environmental consultants involved in assessing the cumulative impact of developments, and in assessing whether proposed developments will have a significant impact on matters of national environmental significance.  The Management Plan not only identifies the location, size, purpose and class of all parks and reserves within the study area, it also identifies those areas which are proposed to be incorporated into the conservation network over the next 10 years.

Please contact us if you have any queries in relation to this proposal.  Lavan Legal will monitor the progress of the Management Plan, and will update you when it is released in final form.