Campaign Update - National Parks under Attack

In 2008, the NSW Government restructured the Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) to facilitate commercial developments in national parks. A National Parks Tourism Taskforce report was then adopted by the Government in December 2008. The report reveals that the NSW Government  plans to remove the 'green tape' from the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974.

The NSW Government is pushing ahead to make our national parks pay their way, not just through increased visitor numbers but also by skimming profits from on-park commercial development. The DECCW (the Environment Department's current acronym) is in effect being encouraged to raise its own salaries through national park development (see articles on park development here).

Now DECCW has drafted a National Parks and Wildlife Amendment (Visitors and Tourists) Bill, 2010 (now law) that has removed the legal protection from National Parks against bad development - see the second expert advice from Mr Robertson SC

                             - the initial Legal Advice by Mr Tim Robertson SC

Environment groups want sustainable visitation, not exclusive and commercially-driven use:

  Go to the Nature Parks - Take Action page

  What could happen when the NSW Government monetises the National Parks brand

  Dr Graeme Worboys, international park expert and former NPWS sen. mgt. exec.
     outlines how the tourism bill threatens the conservation status of our National Parks.

  Can we afford wilderness? Prof. Ralf Buckley, leading ecotourism expert of Griffith University
     explains that accommodation inside national parks "is neither affordable nor sustainable".

  Environment groups rejected the Taskforce Report as being narrowly focused on
     national park development.   

   A chronology of pro-national park development initiatives reveals a worrying connection
      of these plans with tourist industry lobbying.

  Public meetings have unanimously resolved to oppose private development in national parks

  An article by Keith Muir articulates the Threats to National Parks and Wilderness of
    Tourism Development (2005)

Don't believe this is happening?
Well, look at the national park developments in the Accommodation Investment Prospectus from the draft Tourism Masterplan for the Wilderness Coast. This document is a blueprint for promoting the sale of national park lands to developers! And on the mid-north coast at Trial Bay DECC plans to develop a foreshore resort in competition with resorts on private land - its a crazy park move that's a threat to tourism.

It gets even worse. The Alps Master Plan proposes canvas resorts on the Main Range of Kosciuszko National Park. The Parks Service has even proposed knocking three holes in the Green Gully Wilderness to allow for commercial helicopters operations. The last was purchased after a fund raising campaign to honour the Dunphy's contribution to conservation. This really, really mad scheme would set a precedent, white-anting the wilderness estate for the benefit of motorised access and commercial operations. Few in the Department's development obsessed executive seem to understand even the most basic conservation principles.

Ms Sally Barnes believes that its time "for a paradigm shift" toward commercial development in national parks to raise funds for the NPWS to undertake conservation and land acquisition. This pipe-dream of green-wash spin would see park development benefit resort owners most, and reduce the benefit of tourism to local communities. It will not grow revenue for the NPWS as the cost to park management is being ignored. For example, $4.8 million will be spent on infrastructure in Kosciuszko National Park in this year in an attempt to prop up tourism there.

More details are found in the Don't Sell Our Parks to Fund Your Deficit from Bulletin #235, National Parks Development Update from Bulletin # 232 and the Selling out Parks article, from Bulletin #227, provides further background.

We want sustainable visitation, not exclusive and commercially-driven use

The NSW Government wants to encourage the construction of exclusive tourist resorts in national parks. The government is holding up the example of the Bay of Fires Cabins in Tasmania as a desirable development for our national parks. See how this Bay of Fires Cabin is blocking one of the nation’s most beautiful foreshores.

Don't let tourism development of this sort breakdown the integrity of ecosystems and spoil vital wilderness corridors critical to the survival of endangered animals in our national parks.

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