Environmental Management Plans

Most large developments, particularly those that pose a potential impact on the environment, require Environmental Management Plans to ensure their activities minimise impacts to the environment through the identification of environmental risks and development of specific mitigation measures. Development companies must also comply with environmental protection laws and legislation.

AERS can assist clients to prepare a variety of Environmental Management Plans specific to the development project, whether they be for terrestrial fauna, native vegetation, pest animals, and weeds, or general environmental issues such as noise, waste minimisation, water quality or sediment and erosion control. Our Environmental Management Plans not only meet the legislative requirements but are site-specific, practical and achieve sound environmental management.

Planning permits for development projects may also stipulate certain conditions such as ecological monitoring required before and/or after construction. Wind farm developments, for example, usually require surveys of bat and bird utilisation before and after construction and monitoring of bird and bat mortality due to collision with turbine blades following completion of construction and commencement of operation. Such conditions can be incorporated into environmental management plans, such as Bat and Avifauna Management Plans, to detail the survey methods to be used and timing of implementation. As ecologists, the staff of AERS can assist in the implantation of management plans, including ecological surveys and monitoring programs.

AERS can also prepare Offset Management Plans for clients who have acquired a native vegetation offset to compensate for the permitted removal of native vegetation. These management plans are developed specifically for each offset site and detail management responsibility, on-going land use commitments, management actions, the timing of implementation, and monitoring and reporting obligations.