PILBARA ENVIRONMENTAL OFFSETS FUND
1004. Hon TJORN SIBMA to the minister representing the
Minister for Environment:
I refer to page 127 of the
Department of Water and Environmental Regulation's Annual report
2020-21, and to the Pilbara environmental offsets fund, or PEOF—a
bit cheeky! That is what the government called it.
(1) What governance arrangements
apply to management of this fund?
(2) How are the
environmental objectives of the fund determined, and are these the sole factor
in deciding whether environmental offset projects receive funding?
(3) How is the effectiveness of
environmental offset projects evaluated, and by whom?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) The fund is a
special purpose account, established under the Financial Management Act 2006.
The special purpose statement for the account defines what can be receipted and
expended from the fund. The governance framework includes a fund implementation
advisory group and a project recommendation group. The implementation advisory
group for the fund comprises traditional owners and representatives from
industry, natural resource management groups, government agencies and the Western
Australian Biodiversity Science Institute. The project recommendation group
comprises representatives from the Department of Water and Environmental
Regulation, the commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water and the
Environment, and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
(2) The
environmental objectives of the fund are defined as part of conditions of
approval under the Environmental Protection Act 1986 and the commonwealth
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Environmental
objectives and priorities are further defined in the implementation plan for
the fund. The fund's implementation plan was released by the former
Minister for Environment in November 2019.
(3) Delivery
agents report on the effectiveness of management actions to DWER in their
project reports. The project recommendation group reviews the project reports
and advises whether the project should continue, be adjusted or discontinued.
DWER monitors the impact of management actions on the condition of vegetation and habitat. The implementation advisory group
assesses the project reports and the vegetation and habitat monitoring
information and evaluates whether the fund is on track to meet its objectives.