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Tourism development in protected areas: Are we on the right track?

By on 12 June, 2023 in Conservation

 

Tourism development in protected areas: Are we on the right track? 

Bushwalking NSW symposium 19 November 2022

Thank you to our Sponsors:

Summary

Keith gave a stirring call for the protection of nature and for retaining nature intact. See last slide for summary. Also, click here to watch the Symposium video and here to see the Agenda.

Speakers

Andy Macqueen – The Historical Perspective

  • the 90 years anniversary of Blue Gum Forest celebration is also a celebration of all national parks and the amazing legacy of Miles Dunphy
  • also discussed evolution of the conservation movement

Gary Dunnett, National Parks Association of NSW Executive Officer

  • NPA of NSW was established in 1957 to protect nature through community action
  • The National Parks Australia Council is concerned about proposals for commercial developments in Protected Areas
  • believes Protected Areas Management is veering off track

The findings of the 2021 NPAC national survey of community attitudes on development and commercial activities in Protected Areas reinforced:

  • the important protected areas purpose of nature and wildlife protection for current and future generations
  • Australians are twice as likely to visit national parks with low impact commercial tours compared to high impact activities
  • Any visitor services should be small scale, low key, of value to all visitors, and in keeping with the natural setting

Shadow minister for the Environment, Hon. Penny Sharpe

  • Labor’s task is to prioritise environment protection by increasing protected areas, curbing land clearing, establishing market based mechanisms to address climate change and retaining wildlife corridors
  • believes national parks have been downgraded – and we need to elevate NPWS status and increase importance of POMS
  • said invasive species issues are getting out of hand

Andrew Nicholls PSM, Acting Deputy Secretary, NPWS

  • The NPWS acquisition program focus is on under-represented areas of land
  • Australia is the world leader in extinctions – 85% of threatened species live in national parks. 
  • NPWS has a zero extinction policy eg feral animal control, reintroducing locally extinct mammals
  • 30% parks estate is managed jointly with traditional custodians
  • A key issue is stewarding parks due to increasing visitor demands on parks – the POM is the key tool used to balance conservation and recreation 
  • NPWS will use existing infrastructure where possible and will develop new camping facilities where needed. Options for those who want to pay more will be available
  • Economic benefits from national parks will flow to regional economies
  • NPWS will work within national parks legislation using a precautionary approach and consulting with the public

Private Tourism sector perspective from Mark Norek, Life’s an Adventure

  • Mark’s sustainable tour business model is to buy land near national parks for infrastructure, use local infrastructure and support local businesses. Accordingly he is adamant that there is no need for development in national parks. 
  • Outlined how his business principles have been successful with these walks –  Bay of Fires, Three Capes Walk, Light to Light and Kangaroo Island 
  • worried that NPWS is losing their direction and working for the big end of town

University researchers Ali Chauvenet – The Hidden Mental Health costs of the privatisation of parks

  • being in nature is good for our health – parks contribute $5000 per person per year in mental health benefits
  • without national parks there is double the amount of mental health costs 
  • parks privatisation increases the gap between those who do and don’t go to parks due to socio economic factors
  • there’s a missed opportunity for leveraging funding via mental health benefits but this needs to be inclusive and equitable
  • mental ill health is expensive and pervasive

Conservationist perspective from Keith Muir, Wilderness Australia

  • Questioned if the next generation will even know how to engage with nature
  • Parks development leads to more development and nature destruction not nature appreciation 
  • Partial privatisation is exclusive beach front development by stealth
  • The public are excluded from secret government/developer lease negotiations
  • Commercial built development in parks should be legislated against 
  • Local communities are bypassed and do not receive an economic benefit from high-end development
  • Multi use trails are a myth as they displace walkers in place of bikes etc
  • Green Gully developments are non-compliant with legislation. Horse riding negatively impacts on wilderness through weed spread
  • NPWS conservation role has been diverted to tourism management
  • Need to reinforce importance of ecological sustainability – manage parks for nature not humans

Legal perspective from Christopher Birch, SC

  • Gave a clear answer to the question: What stops development in National Parks?
  • While the PoM is the key instrument, the minister has powers to amend a PoM with only 45 days public viewing eg Beowa PoM was amended to allow hard roof accommodation development
  • The minister has extensive powers to grant leases and licences making it very easy to replace NPWS with a commercial operator.
  • EPA process: once the PoM is in place, environmental impacts are reviewed. Only have to examine and take into account environmental impacts as The Act doesn’t require impacts to be addressed. 

NPWS Greater Sydney Regional Advisory Committee perspective from Brian Everingham

  • Preserve Park Protection for Posterity
  • Educate younger generations to appreciate that national parks offer more than a backdrop to modern high-tech activities
  • More money for weed controls in National/State Parks
  • Protect national parks and use existing nearby infrastructure
  • Primary purpose of a park is conservation not commerce
  • The more we talk together, the stronger we are
  • Train young people to guide walks and maintain tracks. NPWS to run these projects and attract more people to walks.

Presentation Summaries:

 

Gardens of Stone Protected!

By on 18 November, 2021 in Conservation

Australia’s longest conservation campaign delivers: Gardens of Stone Protected – New Gardens of Stone Conservation Area announced.

A quick background to the Gardens of Stone announcement:
  • The Australian conservation movement called for the protection of the Gardens of Stone region in 1932
  • In 1932, Colong Foundation for Wilderness founder, Myles Dunphy, included the Gardens of Stone in his ‘Greater Blue Mountains National Park Proposal’
  • In 1985, former Colong Foundation Director, Dr. Haydn Washington, published the Gardens of Stone Reserve Proposal
  • In 1994 the Liberal Environment Minister, Chris Hartcher, reserved the Gardens of Stone National Park (stage 1) after a strategic park proposal from the Colong Foundation for Wilderness while independents held balance of power in the NSW Legislative Assembly
  • In 2005, the Gardens of Stone Alliance formed, consisting of the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, Colong Foundation for Wilderness and the Lithgow Environment Group to coordinate a community campaign to protect the Gardens of Stone based on a state conservation area proposal by the Colong Foundation
  • In 2019, a comprehensive visitor management plan, Destination Pagoda, was released by the Gardens of Stone Alliance to showcase the economic benefits of the region
  • In 2021, Centennial Coal withdrew their proposal for the Angus Place Colliery after persistent campaigning from the Gardens of Stone Alliance

Keith Muir, former Colong Foundation for Wilderness Executive Director, has said “After what must be the longest protected area campaign in history, the Colong Foundation welcomes the new Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area of over 30,000 hectares which positions Lithgow as the gateway to the Gardens of Stone region.

“The new reserve ranks in the top 20 of most floristically diverse of all NSW State Forests, National Parks and Reserves, just behind Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, but outranks them all on geodiversity.

“The funding provided will permit the establishment of a world-class tourism and conservation reserve protecting and presenting an astounding array of heritage values. It will improve the protection of internationally significant pagoda landscapes and remaining rare upland swamps. The area includes 84 threatened plant and animal species, such as the Giant Dragonfly, and 16 rare and threatened communities.

“The untapped tourism value of Lithgow’s Gardens of Stone backyard lies in the diversity and rarity of its scenery and native flora, and in its Aboriginal cultural heritage. These values will be protected and enjoyed by thousands of people.

“Lithgow will become the new Katoomba which was once a coal mining town, having successfully transitioned to a tourism based economy in the 1920s. It is testament to the persistent community campaign that this announcement has happened today.”

Raising Warrangamba Dam Wall Impacts

By on 9 October, 2020 in Conservation

The NSW Nature Conservation Council (NCC) says that up to 1000 hectares of world heritage area and 3700 hectares of national park will be inundated for up to two weeks by raising Warragamba Dam wall.

The NCC is very concerned about 58 threatened species within the area already impacted by  recent bushfires including the koala, critically-endangered regent honeyeater, greater glider, broad-headed snake, brushtail rock wallaby, eucalyptus benthamii and eucalyptus glaucina.

In January 2020 the World Heritage Centre asked the Commonwealth Government to provide an update on the state of conservation of the Blue Mountains heritage area after more than 80 per cent was ravaged by fire last summer.

In response, the Commonwealth Government said Water NSW would re-assess bushfire impacts and include them in the pending environmental impact statement (EIS).  However, to date the draft EIS states Water NSW has no intention of re-assessing the area impacted by fire.

Ornithologist Martin Schulz said last summer’s Green Wattle Creek blaze burnt most of the southern Blue Mountains leaving only a small unburnt section which will likely be flooded by the Dam. “The ecosystems are different and parts will be in recovery for decades. How can an assessment done before the fires be valid? Dr Schulz asked. The fires changed so many things,” he said.

The draft EIS shows before the bushfires only 15 hours of spotlight searches were conducted for the koala, greater glider and squirrel glider in the inundation area, despite a 61 hour recommendation. Dr Schulz says this is “bafflingly low” especially for koalas given the area is so vast and how hard they are to find.

The time spent gathering sample collections of the squirrel glider and brush-tailed phascogale also didn’t meet the guidelines with only 1820 nights completed but 3224 nights recommended. The assessment of the large-eared pied bat was 11 times less the suggested amount with traps laid for 78 nights yet 864 recommended. “The low survey effort for the large-eared pied bat is particularly disappointing,” Dr Schulz said.

Community group Give a Dam spokesman Harry Burkitt has called on the Federal Government to intervene.

“The barrow-loads of leaked material now in the public domain show (Western Sydney) Minister Stuart Ayres and Infrastructure NSW haven’t even bothered following NSW guidelines, let alone those required under federal law or by UNESCO,” he said.

Infrastructure NSW, which oversees the project, says feedback from state and federal governments on the draft EIS is important in developing the final version. “The final decision on the dam raising proposal will only be made after all environmental, cultural, financial and planning assessments are complete,” a spokeswoman said.

The World Heritage Committee, which selects sites for UNESCO’s world heritage list, has expressed concerns over the project and will review the EIS before the Federal Government’s decision.

10,000 Koalas Dead

By on 2 March, 2020 in Conservation

The Nature Conservation Council (NCC) states that shocking new analysis estimates that fire, drought and starvation have killed 10,000 koalas since October [1]. That’s one out of every three koalas in the state!

Koala numbers were already declining steeply and slipping towards extinction. The fires have made their plight even more urgent.

In the midst of this crisis, you would expect our government would do everything in its power to protect remaining forests. But it is doing the opposite.

The NSW Government has now approved logging in two state forests that fires ripped through just weeks ago.

The NCC wants you to call on Premier Berejiklian to put an immediate moratorium on logging and to conduct a wildlife and habitat assessment.

More than 5 million hectares has burnt in NSW this fire season [2], including more than 41% of the national parks estate and 40% of state forests [3].

Native forests are resilient and will recover in time. Burnt forests are living forests with trees that are sprouting fresh leaves. Animals that survived the fires will slowly move back into these forests as life regenerates, so it is critical that these areas are kept safe.

Logging burnt forests not only destroys wildlife habitat, it slows recovery and harms soil and water health. It also increases future fire risk and leaves the forest uninhabitable for decades [3].

Premier Berejiklian has the power to keep forests safe from further destruction. The NCC asks you to call on her to put a moratorium on logging and give our wildlife a fighting chance after the bushfires.

Unburnt forests are critical refuges for koalas and other threatened species. With so much of the state burnt, koalas cannot afford to have their homes and food chopped down and their lives put at risk.

Right now, the NSW Government is looking at where else can be logged, against the best scientific advice, and before carrying out a post-bushfire wildlife and habitat impact assessment.

Pressure from the community has made a difference this bushfire season already, allowing wildlife carers and ecologists into closed state forests on the North Coast where koalas were dying of starvation.

We need to keep being a voice for koalas and other threatened species.

In times like these it can be hard to hold on to hope, but tens of thousands of people are standing up for nature and we are not backing down. Burnt forests are recovering and koalas are being rescued and rehabilitated by dedicated wildlife carers.

[1] Ten thousand koalas may have died in the NSW bushfires, inquiry hears. ABC, 19 February, 2020.
[2] Understanding the impact of the 2019-2020 fires. Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, February 2020.
[3] Analysis by The Wilderness Society, 2020.[4] Post-bushfire logging makes a bad situation even worse, but the industry is ignoring the science. ABC Lindenmayer, 29 January, 2020.