Baseline Area Management PlanPolicy Position (Endorsed August 2017)AgForce endorses the following policy positions relating to Vegetation Management:
- The Baseline Area Management (BAMP) policy
- Using a bipartisan approach to get the Queensland government to adopt the BAMP.
IssueThe
Vegetation Management Act 1999 (VMA), despite its title, was introduced to Queensland to stop broad-scale tree clearing. The VMA has not been well received, nor has it been a useful tool to assist landholders to manage vegetation with the flow on effects of managing soil, land and production.
The VMA has frequently been manipulated politically with 38 amendments since introduction. The lack of a bi-partisan political approach to vegetation management has confused and frustrated landholders and regional departmental staff to the marked detriment of good long-term land management, biodiversity stability, trust and proactive relationships between landholders and the State, political cohesion, and ultimately, primary production.
BackgroundFor a long time AgForce has sought an outcome focused, landscape-scale approach to vegetation management. This approach would provide greater certainty to land managers who would be able to manage their land to achieve an acceptable environmental outcome whilst maintaining a productive and profitable balance within the property.
Being able to demonstrate that they are managing vegetation to an agreed outcome, land managers would cease being targets for politically motivated changes to the prescriptive legislation and regulation that currently governs land management.
The Productivity Commission has recognised* that farmers are important environmental managers and, rather than inflexibly imposing unnecessary regulatory costs as currently occurs, governments should take a whole of landscape approach, work with farmers and even pay them for the public good environmental services they provide.
What the industry needsA BASE LINE AREA MANAGEMENT PLAN (BAMP) is a plan to manage vegetation on a landscape scale having defined the outcome of the management activity, prior to the plan being initiated.
The BAMP has two components:
- A PMAV (Property Map of Assessable Vegetation) based on using historical or contemporary evidence-based data, such as explorer and early settler diaries, photographs, and satellite imagery, to redraw Regional Ecosystem (RE) maps and Regulated Vegetation Management maps. This PMAV defines the outcome of vegetation management activity.
- An AMP (Area Management Plan) that sets out how vegetation management activity will be conducted.
A BAMP is in place for an initial ten years, is attached to the title of the land, but can be changed through the Development Application process.
The BAMP is a proactive way to manage vegetation in this State that will lead to the betterment of both the environment and the productive base.
The major benefit of a BAMP is that it is based on an agreed vegetation outcome between the State and the Landholder – the PMAV, and an agreed vegetation management process between the State and the Landholder – the AMP. Furthermore, if negotiations are conducted in good faith; are tailored to landholder-specific needs; seek a sustainable balance of good environmental outcomes and production goals; and a growing sense of trust between the landholder and State can develop.
The BAMP system has the capability for landholders to invest both their environmental credentials and their production orientated land management credentials in their land.
The BAMP system has the capacity for the Government to know the outcome of vegetation management activity in the State, bringing trust, confidence and administrative savings, while maintaining environmental integrity and moving agricultural production forward to the prosperity of all.
*Productivity Commission, 2016. Regulation of Australian Agriculture Inquiry report. No. 79, 15 November 2016.
Other relevant informationFurther information on AgForce's vegetation policy can be seen by logging in to the Members Only section to the top right of the screen.