In NSW, threatened species conservation operates through legislation. When the government of NSW introduced these Acts, it integrated the threatened species legislation with the planning legislation and so consideration of threatened species issues became a mandatory part of the planning system. This changed the status of threatened species issues bringing them into the mainstream of planning and development approval, requiring all elements of the community of NSW to take threatened species into account when planning decisions are being made. This has been of great benefit for threatened species but it also requires persons working with threatened species to fully understand the intricacies of the planning system. Recognising that the NSW planning system is very complex, this paper sets out to explain, in straightforward terms, how the planning system operates and how threatened species conservation is integrated into the planning system and how it operates in practice. Some comments on the system are provided.