Herald Sun
From: AAP
Developers will be able to bulldoze environmentally sensitive land in Sydney if they pay to protect equivalent land elsewhere, under a scheme that puts a dollar value on animals and plants.
NSW Environment Minister Frank Sartor will today announce the first of the state's highly controversial "BioBank" sites with the government purchase of 80 hectares of grassland near Camden as a permanent conservation reserve, the Sydney Morning Herald says.
The offset purchase marks a new era in environmental management and is the first step in a plan to secure some of the surviving pockets of building land in western Sydney for the construction of 180,000 houses in 40 years.
"It is the first of many Bio-Banking agreements," Mr Sartor said, adding that another 37 are close to being finalised.
The government is confident the scheme will lead to the permanent salvation of many sensitive bushland sites and that development will mainly take place on land that is already degraded.
The scheme was introduced in 2006 amid a storm of criticism from environment groups, the Greens and some in the opposition.
Critics say the scheme could permit the destruction of bushland that might otherwise be preserved, and a green group fighting a housing development in the Hunter Valley describes it as a "pay to kill" policy.