19Meaning of eligible land

19 Meaning of eligible land

(1) Land is eligible land for carrying out the project activities if it satisfies this section. (2) At the application date, the land must not have forest cover, defined at the 10m x 10m scale. (3) The land must have been comprehensively cleared: (a) if there was a change of ownership in the land within the previous 7 years—at a time more than 5 years before the application date; or (b) otherwise—at a time more than 7 years before the application date. (4) Prior to being comprehensively cleared, the land must have supported, or be likely to have supported, native woody vegetation that provided forest cover across the entirety of the area, defined at 0.2 hectare scale. (5) In this instrument, land is taken to have been comprehensively cleared: (a) at a particular time within 15 years before the application date—if the canopy layer of native trees had been removed by mechanical or chemical means from at least 90% of the land, defined at 10m x 10m scale; or (b) at a particular time more than 15 years before the application date—if: (i) there is no canopy layer of native trees on at least 90% of the land, defined at 10m x 10m scale; and (ii) the reference ecosystem for the land generally has forest cover across its natural distribution; and (iii) having regard to relevant characteristics of the land, including its soil type, slope and aspect, the land has forest cover potential. (6) Within the 3 years preceding the application date, any native vegetation on the land must not have been damaged or destroyed by mechanical or chemical means. (7) At the application date, the land must have forest cover potential. (8) At the application date, the land must not contain existing woody biomass unless: (a) the species are native to the local area; and (b) the native species are consistent with the reference ecosystem for the area; and

Note: The reference ecosystem for the area will only be definitively known after the process of identifying the reference systems for a proposed activity area that includes the area in accordance with section 46.

(c) the stems of any trees and shrubs have a diameter of less than 5cm at breast height; and
(d) the density of saplings of native canopy tree species more than 50 cm tall is no more than 3 stems per 10m x 10m of land.