New environmental offset guidelines set a standard approvals approach and provide clarity and certainty for industry.
| Date: | Thursday, 14 August 2014 |
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Environmental Offset Guidelines provide consistency and accountability for regulators and industry.
New guidelines setting the benchmark for the use of environmental offsets in the assessment and approval of resources projects were released by the State Government today.
The guidelines, which complement the existing WA Environmental Offsets Policy released in 2011 and public Environmental Offsets Register released in 2013, were released today by Environment Minister Albert Jacob.
Department of Mines and Petroleum Deputy Director General Dr Tim Griffin said the new environmental offset guidelines will provide greater clarity, consistency and accountability for the regulators and industry alike.
“DMP was involved in the development of these guidelines and fully supports their introduction as they will ensure a standard approach across Government agencies and help to provide greater transparency and accountability for setting environmental offsets,” Dr Griffin said.
“At the same time they will provide more consistency and certainty for project proponents.
“The guidelines will also provide assurance that environmental offsets are only considered as a last resort and will only be used to complement other approaches designed to reduce or mitigate environmental impacts on biodivserity and environmental values.”
Dr Griffin said industry peak bodies and conservation groups were consulted during the development of the guidelines.
He said the release of the guidelines marked another significant step in a series of State Government reforms.
The environmental offsets guidelines can be downloaded from http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/environment_policy .
