Biodiversity Conservation Regulation 2017

The Environment Agency Head is to publish ancillary rules for the purposes of the interpretation and application of the offset rules and variation rules.

The ancillary rules may—

set out standards for the ecological rehabilitation of sites impacted by the carrying out of mining under a mining lease and the credit value of any such rehabilitation, and

set out any impacts on threatened species or ecological communities that are excluded from the application of the variation rules, and

set out the reasonable steps that a proponent is required to take to obtain requisite like-for-like biodiversity credits before the variation rules can be applied, which may include—

checking the public register of biodiversity credits, and

lodging an entry in the public register of persons seeking biodiversity credits for a minimum specified period, and

contacting landholders who are entered on the public register of biodiversity stewardship site expressions of interest, and

set out the biodiversity conservation actions that qualify as biodiversity conservation measures under the offset rules, and

include any other provisions that the Environment Agency Head considers necessary or convenient for the purposes of the interpretation or application of the offset rules or variation rules.

The ancillary rules are to be published on a government website maintained by the Environment Agency Head.

If the ancillary rules are changed, a biodiversity assessment report may, during the period of 90 days after the rules were changed, be prepared on the basis of the rules in force before the change, but only if the report states that it has been prepared on that basis.