Kate Gavens
Chief Conservation Regulator
Welcome to the Conservation Regulator’s Year in Review for 2023–2024. This year there have been significant achievements across the Regulator with strong outcomes in engagement and education and several substantial compliance and enforcement outcomes.
Once again, we have engaged with the community by participating in local events and ensuring our presence and visibility on public land through proactive patrols across Victoria. We’ve also worked with our youngest Victorians, launching primary school education resources to help educate kids and their families about protecting the environment.
The Conservation Regulator has increased its focus on getting the community to report wildlife and forest related non-compliance including through dedicated campaigns with CrimeStoppers Victoria.
As a result, we have seen the number of reports of illegal and deliberate harm to wildlife and our forests increase this year which has helped us take appropriate regulatory action on important animal cruelty and biodiversity cases. I want to thank the members of the community who have taken the time to report any suspicious activity they have seen as it makes a significant contribution to our work.
This year we have had success in taking enforcement action in a number of key areas of wildlife and forest crime. We finalised our investigation into the discovery of starving and injured koalas at a Cape Bridgewater property in 2020, with cumulative fines of $133,000.
We successfully prosecuted a number of individuals for animal cruelty resulting in fines and community correction orders and, we laid 248 charges for illegal take of firewood, supporting our crackdown on the black-market firewood trade.
I hope you enjoy reading about our achievements in this Year in Review. I look forward to what we will achieve in 2024-25 with your help and being able to share it with you again next year.
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