Management plans describe how, where and when potential impacts of your project will be avoided, mitigated and/or compensated. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) refers to these as ‘action management plans’.
You may submit an action management plan during the referral of your project. If a plan is necessary, it is likely to be required as part of draft assessment documentation. If your project is approved, you can be required to submit one or more plans for approval before you can start.
Purpose of an action management plan
Plans provided during referral
Plans can be provided during the referral stage to help us with the impact assessment of your project.
Plans should clearly outline the measures you propose to take to avoid or minimise impacts on relevant protected matters.
Note: Offsets, and plans outlining how offsets will address potential impacts, cannot be considered during the referral stage.
Plan provided during assessment or after approval of your project
Plans can be required either during the assessment of your project, or after the approval of your project. These plans will need to demonstrate how you will adequately address your impacts.
The types of plans you may need to develop to address these impacts could include, but are not limited to:
- environmental management plans (e.g., pre-clearing, construction, operations and/or decommissioning)
- species or ecological community specific management plans
- offset management plans
- water monitoring and management plans
Fees for action management plans
The fees you pay for the EPBC Act referral and assessment process can contribute to assessing a plan.
There can be extra fees for assessing a plan if you submit them after the approval of your project:
- as required in your project’s conditions of approval
- to have a revised version of a plan approved.
We will let you know when fees are required.
When to create an action management plan
You can provide us with a plan as part of the assessment process. Otherwise, we will let you know when to create a plan as part of the approval conditions and can guide you on what's required.
An assessment of your plan takes time. We may also need to ask you to apply amendments to your plan to meets its purpose.
For this reason, you should submit any plan well in advance of when its approval is needed. You should also factor in the time it may take to make changes requested by us.
Your conditions of approval may require the minister to approve your plan before you begin the project. You must submit your plan in accordance with your conditions of approval.
What to put in an action management plan
A plan needs to set out clear commitments on how impacts from your action will be addressed. If your plan is approved, you are required to fulfil those commitments.
The Environmental Management Plan Guidelines provide guidance on what your management plan should include. The guidelines cover:
- general principles for the preparation of a management plan; and
- content of a management plan.
Commitments in your plan must adhere to SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound) principles and avoid ambiguous terminology.
Your plan’s content should also align with the information and actions in statutory documents and departmental policies that are relevant to your plan’s purpose. These documents explain potential impacts and how to avoid and manage them.
You can access data and publications that will help.
Your plan will need to meet any requirements set by us.
Statutory documents
Statutory documents made under the EPBC Act can describe management actions, conservation actions and/or recovery objectives. These will contribute to the conservation of a protected matter.
Examples include:
- approved Conservation Advices, Recovery Plans, Threat Abatement Plans for listed threatened species and communities
- management plans developed for declared World Heritage properties, listed national heritage places, or listed Ramsar wetlands.
Your plan’s outcomes should align with the information and actions outlined in the statutory documents developed for the matters impacted by your action.
Information about listed species and communities, and associated statutory documents, can be found on the Species Profile and Threats Database.
Agency policies
Our policies provide guidance on requirements. For your plan, a relevant agency policy is a document that guides the development of a management plan required under the EPBC Act or specific requirements for a type of action management plan.
For example, if you are developing an offset management plan, you will need to consider the EPBC Act Environmental Offsets Policy.
Talk to us if you are unsure about which statutory documents and agency policies may be relevant to your management plan.
Providing your action management plan
If your plan is to inform assessment of your project, send a Word version to us via the EPBC Act Business Portal.
If your plan is required as a condition of your approval, send a Word version to us via your account on the EPBC Act Business Portal. If you don’t have a portal account, send the Word version to PostApproval@dcceew.gov.au
When seeking approval of revisions to an existing approved plan, you need to provide:
- a Word version of the approved plan with proposed changes ‘tracked’
- a summary of the proposed changes
- an explanation of why these changes are necessary or convenient for the protected matters addressed by measures in your plan.
New or increased impact conditions
If your project is approved under the EPBC Act, your conditions of approval may reference ‘new or increased impact’ in relation to revisions to approved management plans.
If this condition applies to your project, it generally allows you to implement a revised plan without the minister’s approval provided that the proposed changes are unlikely to have a new or increased impact on matters protected under your approval. Note that your conditions of approval will specify which plans can be revised without approval.
The guidance on ‘new or increased impact’ can help you work out if a proposed change is likely to have a ‘new or increased’ impact.
You must submit a copy of the proposed revised plan before you put it in place.
- Email: PostApproval@dcceew.gov.au
- Submit via the EPBC Act Business Portal.
Get in touch
For questions about your project or the EPBC Act Business Portal, contact us:
- Email: EPBC.Referrals@nationalepa.gov.au
- Phone: 1800 423 135 between 9 am and 5 pm Canberra time.