The Commonwealth approval of the strategic assessment of the entire project follows last month's ACT development approval leaving a NSW rezoning decision, expected late next year, as the final hurdle to it going ahead.

Riverview Projects chief executive David Maxwell said conserving local species and ecological communities was "a cause we're inherently committed to on the project".

"Gaining Environmental Protection, Biodiversity and Conservation Act approval of our development and conservation commitments is a big step towards achieving that," he said.

But the federal government has put 13 specific environmental conditions on the project, in addition to seven standard environment department conditions around record-keeping and administrative issues.

While such conditions may help to protect the moth and preserve land, the federal enforcement of such conditions and the use of offsets have previously been criticised in Senate inquiries and by the Australian National Audit Office.

The specific conditions for the development include putting aside about 550ha for a west belconnen conservation corridor and three smaller reserves to 'offset' impacts on the endangered golden sun moth.

Land that will need to be put aside to offset effects on the moth include 52ha at Jaramlee, 37ha at West Macgregor and the 86.8ha block at Lot 2 Wallaroo Road.

The land that is subject to the reserves on both sides of the border will also need to be rezoned to satisfy the commonwealth conditions, while the developers will need to draw up a management plan for the West Belconnen Conservation Reserve.

That plan will need approval from the federal environment department for relevant protected matters of national significance as well as by both ACT and NSW environment departments to, the ACT Conservator and territory environment minister.

The strategic assessment completed earlier this year showed a box gum woodland and natural temperate grassland in the project area, but impacts on the grassland impacts should be avoided by the design.

It showed there could still be cumulative and indirect impacts to the box gum woodland, through increased public access to the area, weed invasion and potential changes to the local hydrology, impacts the developers needs to mitigate or offset.

The assessment also found five threatened bird species in the area, namely the Australian painted snipe, regent honeyeater, swift parrot, superb parrot and painted honeyeater, as well as the endangered Macquarie perch, trout cod and vulnerable Murray cod and endangered pink-tailed worm lizard.

A raft of conditions to reduce, mitigate or offset the effects on those species will need to be included in management plans, and despite the endangered Booroolong frog potentially being in the area, no detailed assessment of amphibian or fish species has been completed.

Ginninderry conservation advisor Dr Jason Cummings said there were ongoing requirements for reporting to "demonstrate or meet a range of protection measures and commitments as the development progresses".

The federal approval also includes a condition for the developers to create an 'environmental trust', which Dr Cummings said would allow the community to be represented in decision-making about conservation corridor, to deliver a "uniform management structure on both sides of the border.