Environmental Offests
A key principle of the Sugarloaf Pipeline Alliance was to avoid or minimise impacts on the environment, community and business. Where loss of vegetation and habitat was unavoidable, these losses were offset by purchasing properties to protect similar vegetation and habitat elsewhere.
The Alliance strategy for offset management ensured the project exceeded the requirements of Victoria's Native Vegetation Management – A Framework for Action (2003). This strategy was developed in consultation with the Department of Sustainability and Environment to meet ‘net gain’ requirements for vegetation removal.
Around 70 ‘habitat hectares’ of native vegetation were cleared building the 70km-long Sugarloaf Pipeline. This was significantly less than original estimates. The Sugarloaf Pipeline Alliance has created the ’Environmental Offsets’ fact sheet to explain the habitat bioregions found along the construction corridor and how these areas have been offset to produce a net gain.
Further information
- Offset Management Strategy (PDF, 5.5mb) provides further details on our offset management strategy
- Conservation and Environment at the Department of Sustainability and Environment provides details of conservation and sustainable use of Victoria's natural environment.
You will need Adobe Acrobat to access the above PDF documents. 
