Appendix B1 - Overarching MNES Standard

Environmental Outcome

Matters of national environmental significance are protected and enhanced, and decision-making actively contributes to improvements in their conservation and management.

National Standard

1. Actions, decisions, plans and policies that relate to MNES:
   1. Are consistent with the objects of the EPBC Act and the principles of ecologically sustainable development (including the precautionary principle) and reflect a principle of non-regression.
   2. Do not have unacceptable or unsustainable impacts on MNES, having regard to the sensitivity, value, and quality of the environment which is impacted, and upon the intensity, duration, magnitude and geographic extent of the impacts.
   3. Minimise harm to MNES, including employing all reasonable measures to avoid and then to mitigate significant impacts, and then lastly apply appropriate offsets.
   4. Are not inconsistent with relevant international agreements, recovery plans, management plans and threat abatement plans, and have regard to and ensure decisions reflect any approved conservation advice where relevant.
   5. Maintain and improve conservation, recovery and sustainable management, address detrimental cumulative impacts and key threatening processes and fill information gaps that impede recovery and appropriate management, including
      1. use all reasonable efforts to prevent actions contributing to detrimental cumulative impacts or exacerbation of key threatening processes.
   6. Are based on the best available information. Data and information should be stored and shared consistent with best practice data and information management.
2. Engagement is undertaken with governments, the community, landholders and Indigenous peoples, consistent with the EPBC Act and National Environmental Standards.
3. Monitoring, reporting and evaluation demonstrates compliance with National Environmental Standards.

Monitoring and Reporting

1. A plan must be prepared and implemented to monitor and evaluate the outcomes of actions, decision, plans and policies for each MNES by all parties responsible for applying the National Environmental Standards for MNES. Each monitoring and evaluation plan must:
   1. address impacts for the relevant MNES, and be designed to understand and track all cumulative impacts at the relevant scale (e.g. national, state-wide, regional plan areas or project site),
   2. cover all actions, activities, decisions, plans, or policies that impact the outcomes for MNES, relevant to the scale,
   3. establish the baseline, key indicators and targeted outcomes, monitoring activities, evaluation and reporting processes relevant to the protected matter and the activities being conducted,
   4. be based on the best available evidence, and accord with best practice for data and information management, and other relevant National Environmental Standards and guidelines,
   5. be over a time frame and area relevant to the potential risk or benefit to the MNES,
   6. be designed to ensure the state of the MNES and any changes in its state can be quantified, with the power of analysis to detect change in the MNES explicitly identified, and
   7. identify thresholds of change in the MNES (distribution, abundance, condition, or integrity) at all relevant scales that will trigger specific mitigation or recovery actions.
2. The monitoring plan, results, analyses, evaluation of performance against indicators and thresholds, underpinning data and information on which they are based, must be made publicly available consistent with the EPBC Act and National Environmental Standards, and any relevant conditions of approval or accreditation.
3. Monitoring and evaluation plans must be reviewed and updated every 5 years.

Review

National Environmental Standards should be reviewed and updated regularly, including when there are substantive changes to the EPBC Act or relevant administrative arrangements, or major events that may impact the status of protected matters.