applications to remove native vegetation are classified as low medium or high risk where applications to clear native vegetation fall into the low risk category the equivalence rules that apply are less specific than in the case for applications in the medium and high risk categories and consequently the costs of compliance are lower for lowrisk projects the regulatory requirements for applications proposing higher severity biodiversity loss increase in proportion to the proposed impacts where environmental impact assessments may be required evaluating the ecological equivalence between biodiversity loss and offset sites is a twostage process biodiversity is measured at the biodiversity loss site and an offset requirement is then calculated to meet the objectives of the scheme based on the measured loss