Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01747:reg:9:p4
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01747
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 9 (pt 4/20)
Character Range: 313579–316582

frequent fire, heavy grazing), as this is known to increase the impacts from cats by attracting higher cat activity, and by increasing hunting efficiency.

Any such impacts may be especially pronounced at places where a proposed development overlaps with or is near to natural environments that currently support populations of cat-susceptible species. For each example listed above, there may be ways to avoid or mitigate the impacts; for example, access to potential food sources could be prevented, and culverts can be designed to exclude cats. New suburban developments could have cat prohibition as a condition of the approval.

In addition, when considering proposals that could increase the threat of predation by cats, assessors could apply the principles of the mitigation hierarchy, for example:

    * Actions that increase the threat of cat predation on native species that are extremely susceptible to cats should be avoided.

    * Actions that increase the threat of cat predation on species that are highly or moderately susceptible to cats should be avoided or minimised, and any residual impacts should be offset.

    * Actions that increase the threat of cat predation on species of low cat-susceptibility should be minimised, or offset.

Any offsets for increased cat impacts should be designed to support the implementation of this threat abatement plan. For example, development proposals in or near areas designated as high priority for cat management (Actions 2.1 to 2.6) could be required to create cat-free safe havens (followed by translocations of cat-susceptible species if necessary) and manage them in perpetuity, or to implement strategic management that reduces cat numbers or their impacts, to support the long-term persistence of cat-susceptible species and therefore offset some of the biodiversity loss caused by the development.

Furthermore, in some situations there may be scope for designing and implementing an indirect offset to compensate for residual significant impacts on a cat-impacted species from a development that does not cause additional or exacerbate cat-related impacts. For example, if a mine development has potential detrimental impacts on a threatened species known to be cat-susceptible, the potential detriment to the threatened species could be offset with the establishment of a cat management program (consistent with actions in this threat abatement plan) benefitting the threatened species elsewhere if it can be demonstrated that the program would achieve a better conservation outcome for the protected matter.

     12 Continuity and adaptation

This threat abatement plan follows and benefits from 3 preceding threat abatement plans for predation by feral cats. Much has been achieved because of the implementation of these plans, including a substantially improved conservation outlook for many threatened species. However, the ongoing need for such plans shows that this key threatening process is challenging to abate, and will