Environmental Legislation & Planning

The course considers Australian legal frameworks and international conventions, and their implications for environmental control. The course then turns attention to examine the NSW environmental planning system of land use and development control, and the types of environmental assessments required to achieve a greater understanding of the environmental impacts of proposals. The course also examines a range of NSW environmental regulatory approaches and issues through topics and case studies selected from: terrestrial and marine protected areas, pollution control, sustainability, Native Title and Indigenous cultural heritage, biodiversity and threatened species, marine and fisheries, and resource management. Students will gain an appreciation of command and control versus market based mechanisms. The importance of sustainability and social values, public participation, and the precautionary principle for effective environmental legislation and planning is addressed.