Revegetate and restore habitat

Less than 20 per cent of native vegetation remains in South Australia’s agricultural areas. Restoring what’s left and revegetating new area is critical to halt and reverse this decline.

However, revegetation can be difficult and expensive to achieve and, if undertaken, it is not protected by the Native Vegetation Act 1991 (the Act). This means these revegetated landscapes are highly exposed to future disturbance. All the hard work and effort in re-establishing an area of vegetation can be quickly lost.

When is revegetation protected?

In certain circumstances, revegetation is automatically considered native vegetation and is therefore protected by the Act. This includes if the vegetation is established:

• as a condition of consent in relation to clearance application (i.e. an SEB area)
• in relation to a Court Order under the Act.

How can I protect my revegetation?

There are two main options for protecting revegetation.

1. Apply to the Native Vegetation Council (NVC) to have your revegetation noted on the Title of the land as native vegetation. Once noted on the Title, the revegetation will be protected to the same extent as any naturally occurring native vegetation.

   Revegetation may be already established or it may be a proposed project. However, the NVC will generally not consider proposed project or revegetation that is less than five years old due to variability of success.

   The revegetation will be assessed against a set of criteria to determine if it is of a standard to be considered native vegetation.

2. Apply to have the revegetation protected through the establishment of a Heritage Agreement, which provides a higher level of protection as the area will be permanently dedicated for conservation.

   The revegetation will be assessed against a set of criteria to determine if it’s of an acceptable standard to be protected by a Heritage Agreement.

Advantages of protecting revegetation

• Secure the investment of time and money from private landholders, local councils, government agencies, volunteer groups and NGOs.
• Requires a SEB offset to be provided if the revegetation is subsequently granted clearance approval.
• Provides acknowledgement and potentially support (via the Heritage Agreement Scheme) for revegetation projects of a high standard.

Information and advice

Refer to our fact sheets for further information:

• Protection of existing planted native species (information sheet 49)
• Protection of proposed revegetation (information sheet 50)
• Protection of existing and proposed revegetation within a Heritage Agreement (information sheet 51)
• Criteria for assessing applications to protect revegetation

Complete the application form to protect revegetation (including within Heritage Agreements).

If you want to revegetate or restore a site, check out our Habitat Restoration Planning Guide for Natural Resource Managers for:

• tips on how to set restoration goals
• tools to assess the state of a site
• ideas on how to restore a site.

Visit the website of your local Landscapes SA board to see landscape protection projects that are taking place in your region.

If you have submitted an application, or are seeking follow up information, please contact the Native Vegetation Branch on (+61 8) 8303 9777.