The Wire

Developers will be able to bulldoze land if they agree to protect other environmentally significant sites, in a scheme that is getting under way in NSW. The so called BioBanking system allows developers to clear habitat if they offset the destruction by helping to purchase other environmentally significant sites elsewhere in the state. The government today announced the purchase of a new conservation area in Western Sydney, to be funded by developers. But the Greens and some environment organizations say that BioBanking simply entrenches the right of wealthy developers to destroy habitat, as long as they can pay. A short time ago I asked NSW Greens MP Sylvia Hale for her take on today’s announcement.