Image courtesy of the WA Museum

Subterranean fauna assessment

Impacts on subterranean fauna are assessed as part of the EPA’s process to determine the environmental impacts of proposals. Although subterranean fauna has only been a key environmental factor since the mid-1990s, much has been learned in that time and about 40 major projects have considered subterranean fauna during the assessment process.

The EPA is interested in understanding the changing state of knowledge, legal and policy drivers, effectiveness of current assessment practices and potential opportunities to improve the way in which assessment is done.

The discussion paper - A review of subterranean fauna assessment in Western Australia - summarises developments in subterranean fauna science, how the EPA’s assessment of subterranean fauna has changed over time, concerns with current EPA guidance statements, and provides some options for the future direction of subterranean fauna assessment.

We thank you for your feedback, which will be used to produce an Environmental Assessment Guideline, to provide advice to proponents on future requirements for environmental assessment of subterranean fauna.

Although the comment period has closed, the discussion paper is still available at A review of subterranean fauna assessment in Western Australia (pdf .98Mb)