Final report

Chapter 8 - Planning and restoration

October 2020

Key points

The EPBC Act does not facilitate the maintenance or restoration of the environment. The current settings cannot halt the trajectory of environmental decline or manage cumulative impacts.

The settings of the Act cannot mobilise the large-scale restoration needed and support future development in a sustainable way.

Reversing this unsustainable trajectory will require planning to manage the environment on a national or regional (landscape) scale, as well as broad scale investment in restoration. To do this effectively and efficiently, a fundamental shift is required – from a transaction-based approach to one that is centred on effective and adaptive planning.

The regulatory levers of government, including offsets, should align with the priorities of plans. However, immediate change is required to the current EPBC Act environmental offsets policy to ensure that offsets do not continue to contribute towards environmental decline.

The scale of investment required to enable future development to be sustainable means that environmental restoration cannot be delivered solely by direct government investment.

The EPBC Act can provide certainty for investment in offsets and identify matters of national environmental significance in need of protection and restoration. But outside of the Act, more work is needed to recognise and halt the degradation of Australia’s ‘natural capital’.

More avenues for investment in restoration and sustainable land management will ‘grow the pie’ to improve the overall state of the environment. This will enable Australia to accommodate future development in a sustainable way.

The key reforms recommended by the Review are:

  • Strategic national plans for ‘big-ticket’, nationally-pervasive issues to guide the national response and enable action and investment by all parties.
  • Regional plans that support the management of the environment at the landscape scale. These plans should be consistent with the National Environmental Standards and developed in accordance with quality planning principles.
  • Immediate improvements should be made to the offsets policy ahead of more fundamental legislative change.
  • The Commonwealth should formally examine and publicly report on the feasibility (costs and benefits) of an investment and research organisation and the suite of measures required to deliver environmental restoration.

8.1 - The EPBC Act lacks comprehensive plans to manage cumulative impacts, key threats and to set priorities

Cumulative impacts on and threats to the environment are often not well managed under the current settings of the EPBC Act. Existing provisions for more strategic approaches that can consider cumulative impacts such as bioregional plans and strategic assessments, have a history of limited use. The approach to planning for recovery of threatened species and ecological communities is piecemeal. Planning to address key threats not a requirement under the Act and there is no clear mechanism to enable a quick response to acute threats. Opportunities for coordinated national action and investments to address key environmental challenges such as feral animals, habitat restoration and adapting to climate change, are ad hoc rather than a key national priority.
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8.2 - Better planning is required to protect and restore the environment

Comprehensive planning is required to enable cumulative risks to be managed, response to future impacts coordinated and clear priorities for restoration identified to address historical impacts. National level plans are required to address pervasive issues that would benefit from strategic coordination such as management of feral animals or adaptation of the environment to climate change. Regional level plans would allow for planning at the right scale, consideration of cumulative risks and key threats, support effective planning for sustainable future development and direct investment in protection, conservation and restoration to where it is most needed.
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8.3 - Government-driven investment in restoration

Government investment in restoration, while a constant feature of government policy, is often not well coordinated to prioritise investment in a way that achieves the greatest possible biodiversity benefits. The regulatory levers of government, including offsets, should align with the priorities of plans. Immediate change is required to the current EPBC Act offsets policy to ensure that offsets do not continue to contribute towards environmental decline. There are also opportunities to better align investment in restoration with investment in carbon markets.
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8.4 - Government effort alone is not enough

The scale of investment required to enable future development to be sustainable means that environmental restoration cannot be delivered solely by direct government investment. There is potential for private investment in restoration and natural capital to be incentivised. These incentives can be delivered through better information, co-investment or tax mechanisms. Government has a role to play in encouraging investment, though it is outside of the EPBC Act.
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