Resilience and Environmental Management in Legislation
Ecological resilience and the thresholds by which resilience is defined are closely interrelated in the way that they influence environmental policy-making, legislation and subsequently environmental management. The ability of ecosystems to recover from certain levels of environmental impact is not explicitly noted in legislation, however, because of ecosystem resilience, some levels of environmental impact associated with development are made permissible by environmental policy-making and ensuing legislation.
Some examples of the consideration of ecosystem resilience within legislation include:
- Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) – A key goal of the Environmental Assessment procedure is to determine whether proposed development will have a significant impact upon ecosystems.
- Protection of the Environment (Operations) Act 1997 (NSW) – Pollution control is dependent upon keeping levels of pollutants emitted by industrial and other human activities below levels which would be harmful to the environment and its ecosystems. Environmental protection licenses are administered to maintain the environmental objectives of the POEO Act and breaches of license conditions can attract heavy penalties and in some cases criminal convictions.
- Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (NSW) – This Act seeks to protect threatened species while balancing it with development.
Read more about this topic: Resilience (ecology)
Famous quotes containing the words resilience, management and/or legislation:
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—Alicia F. Lieberman (20th century)
“Why not draft executive and management brains to prepare and produce the equipment the $21-a-month draftee must use and forget this dollar-a-year tommyrot? Would we send an army into the field under a dollar-a-year General who had to be home Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays?”
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)