Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

A threat abatement plan for the whole, or one or more parts, of a key threatening process must provide for the research, management and other actions necessary to reduce the whole process, or the relevant parts of the process, to an acceptable level in order to maximise the chances of the long‑term survival in nature of native species and ecological communities affected by the process or the relevant parts of the process, as the case may be.

In particular, a threat abatement plan must:

state the objectives to be achieved; and

state criteria against which achievement of the objectives is to be measured; and

specify the actions needed to achieve the objectives; and

meet prescribed criteria (if any) and contain provisions of a prescribed kind (if any).

In making a threat abatement plan for the whole, or one or more parts, of a key threatening process, regard must be had to:

the objects of this Act; and

the most efficient and effective use of the resources that are allocated for the conservation of species and ecological communities; and

minimising any significant adverse social and economic impacts consistently with the principles of ecologically sustainable development; and

meeting Australia’s obligations under international agreements between Australia and one or more countries relevant to the species or ecological community threatened by the process or the relevant parts of the process, as the case may be; and

the role and interests of indigenous people in the conservation of Australia’s biodiversity.

A threat abatement plan for the whole, or one or more parts, of a key threatening process may:

state the estimated duration and cost of the threat abatement process; and

identify organisations or persons who will be involved in evaluating the performance of the threat abatement plan; and

specify any major ecological matters (other than the species or communities threatened by the process or the relevant parts of the process, as the case may be) that will be affected by the plan’s implementation.

Subsection (4) does not limit the matters that a threat abatement plan may include.