The Commonwealth and Victorian governments have agreed on a process to cut red tape and streamline environmental assessments in the implementation of the Victorian Government's Delivering Melbourne's newest sustainable communities program.
The program aims to accommodates Melbourne's growing population over the next 20 years.
The approved program includes large areas for the establishment of environmental offsets and provides protections for nationally protected species through the retention and management of secure conservation reserves and other mitigation measures.
The program takes into account the long-term cumulative impacts of development on environmental values, while supporting sustainable economic development.
The program will see an increase in the protection of key biodiversity sites around Melbourne and represents a commitment from the Government to the protection of a large number of threatened species, including birds, fish, reptiles and plants.
By establishing new national grasslands reserves, the assessment increases the area of temperate grasslands in permanent protection from 2 per cent to 20 per cent and the area of grassy woodlands is increased from 3 per cent to 5 per cent.
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