Apply and evaluate minimal impact and Leave No Trace practices when planning and undertaking outdoor journeys in Australian natural environments.

What this dot point is asking

You must apply and evaluate minimal impact practices when planning and undertaking journeys. This protects the environments you studied in Assessment Type 1 and demonstrates the responsible practice at the heart of the course.

Why minimal impact matters

Popular natural areas suffer cumulative damage from many visitors: trampled vegetation, widened and eroded tracks, polluted water, disturbed wildlife and litter. Australian environments are often slow to recover because of poor soils and fragile, specialised species. Minimal impact is the set of practices that lets people enjoy and learn from these places without degrading them, so they remain healthy for ecosystems, for First Nations custodians and for future visitors.

The core principles

Plan ahead and prepare, so you carry the right gear, keep groups small and avoid needing to improvise in ways that damage the environment. Travel and camp on durable surfaces such as established tracks, rock and hardened sites, rather than cutting new paths or camping on fragile vegetation. Dispose of waste properly: pack out all rubbish and manage human waste correctly. Leave what you find, taking nothing and disturbing nothing, including cultural sites. Minimise campfire impact, often by using a stove instead of a fire. Respect wildlife by observing from a distance and never feeding animals. Be considerate of other visitors and of the custodians of Country.

Waste and human waste

All rubbish, including food scraps and organic waste, is packed out, since scraps attract animals and disrupt their behaviour. Human waste is managed by using toilets where provided, or by burying it in a small hole well away from water, tracks and campsites, and by packing out toilet paper in sensitive or alpine areas. Washing is done away from waterways using minimal or no soap, so that detergents and food do not pollute streams that wildlife and other groups depend on.

Campsites, fires and tracks

Choose existing, durable campsites rather than clearing new ones, and keep groups small to limit impact. Stoves are preferred to fires because fires scar the ground, consume habitat, sterilise soil and pose bushfire risk; where fires are permitted, use established fireplaces and only dead fallen wood. On tracks, walk in single file along the centre even through mud, since walking around wet patches widens the trail and spreads erosion.

Applying and evaluating on a journey

For Assessment Type 2 you plan minimal impact measures before the trip and apply them in the field, then evaluate how well they worked. Strong evidence shows specific decisions: choosing a hardened campsite, packing out all waste, using a stove, keeping to the track, and any compromises you had to make. Evaluating honestly, including where impact occurred and how you would reduce it next time, shows the environmental responsibility examiners reward.

Linking to the wider course

Minimal impact connects your conservation study in Assessment Type 1 to action, protecting the biodiversity and environments you investigated, and it reflects the caring for Country approach of First Nations land management. It also deepens the connection to place you reflect on in Assessment Type 3, since caring for an environment is part of belonging to it.