Victoria has just ‘modernised’ its key biodiversity law, the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. We think it is high time we took that opportunity to use critical habitat protections to best ecological effect.

In this report, we reflect on the legal and policy tools available for the protection of the ‘critical habitat’ of listed threatened species. It is a tool long available and virtually never used in Australia and in Victoria. Our analysis considers legal and policy dimensions to the design and use of critical habitat protections, including reflection of their role in conservation policy, which is presently guided by Victoria’s Biodiversity Strategy.