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CASE STUDY<br />
Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo<br />
Corimbia, WA<br />
Assessing the impacts of our developments<br />
on biodiversity and the local community is<br />
critical to obtaining approval from regulatory<br />
authorities and by community stakeholders.<br />
Our newest residential community in<br />
Western Australia, Corimbia, has been<br />
identified as requiring, under legislation,<br />
both onsite and offsite measures to<br />
balance our impact on the local biodiversity.<br />
A key piece of environmental legislation<br />
of particular relevance to Corimbia and our<br />
Residential business is the Environmental<br />
Protection and Biodiversity Conservation<br />
(EPBC) Act. The EPBC Act aims to protect<br />
and manage nationally and internationally<br />
important flora, fauna, ecological<br />
communities and heritage places.<br />
Our Corimbia project will yield<br />
850 residential lots from its 61.8 hectares<br />
of landholdings that we began acquiring<br />
in 2003. When we acquired the land it<br />
was zoned as ‘rural’ (land dominated<br />
by horticultural activities such as market<br />
gardens and remnant bushland) but in<br />
2008 it was rezoned to ‘urban’.<br />
The remnant bushland in the area is<br />
dominated by Banksia woodland with<br />
Jarrah and Marri eucalyptuses scattered<br />
among heath vegetation in the upland<br />
areas, and Banksia woodland interspersed<br />
with Melaleuca preissiana and Banksia<br />
ilicifolia trees in the low-lying areas.<br />
The Banksia woodland is considered to<br />
support suitable foraging habitat for the<br />
EPBC Act-listed endangered Carnaby’s<br />
Black Cockatoo. As a result, the proposed<br />
clearing of approximately 16 hectares was<br />
referred to the Department of Environment,<br />
Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA)<br />
in December 2008 to determine whether<br />
there was a potential to impact a matter<br />
of National Environmental Significance.<br />
DEWHA provided its conditional approval<br />
to the proposed clearing within the area.<br />
Conditions included, but were not limited to:<br />
• Limiting the clearing of remnant<br />
vegetation to 14 hectares and retaining<br />
2 hectares of foraging habitat as public<br />
open space,<br />
• Planting 372 seedlings of nominated<br />
species as street trees in the<br />
development area,<br />
• If after three years from the date of<br />
planting, a survival rate of 90 per cent<br />
has not been achieved, all planted trees<br />
that have not survived must be replaced<br />
and maintained for a further two years,<br />
• Provision of $370,000 to the Department<br />
of Environment and Conservation (WA)<br />
to acquire 44.6 hectares of foraging<br />
habitat at two locations north of Perth.<br />
We consider that the suite of<br />
onsite and offsite offsets approved by<br />
DEWHA are effective and appropriate<br />
long-term mitigation measures for the loss<br />
of 14 hectares of suitable foraging habitat<br />
for Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo.<br />
Threatened or endangered species or communities impacted by projects<br />
Total 2010 Total 2009<br />
Residential<br />
Communities<br />
2010<br />
Residential<br />
Communities<br />
2009<br />
Apartments<br />
2010<br />
Apartments<br />
2009<br />
Retirement<br />
Living 2010<br />
Retirement<br />
Living 2009<br />
Percentage of projects that impact threatened or<br />
endangered species (%) 33 21 39 24 11 9 0 0<br />
Total area of land that impacts species habitat or makes<br />
up community (hectares) 852 1,077 850 1,075 2 2 0 0<br />
Projects with a biodiversity plan approved by relevant<br />
approval authority (%) 24 21 30 24 0 9 0 0<br />
Total projects that partnered with or involved community<br />
and non-government organisations in natural<br />
resource management 11 7 11 7 0 0 0 0<br />
84<br />
<strong>Stockland</strong> Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report June 2010