The World Conservation Union (IUCN) classification scheme for protected areas states that National Parks should be designated to "exclude exploitation or occupation inimical to the purposes of dedication of the area".

The aforementioned memorandum of understanding relates to cooperation between the two bodies to develop projects which combine carbon sequestration with biodiversity conservation.

Sounds like a good idea you say? Why aren’t there ways to give financial recognition to the role of

National Parks in maintaining ecosystem function, in providing clean water to regional communities, and the like?

The trouble is that under the gloss of the dual environmental goals of reduced greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity conservation something rather strange has been going on.

The MOU provides for State Forest and NPWS to cooperate in site assessment, project management and marketing, for plantations on NPWS-managed land. A desktop exercise has been undertaken identifying so-called cleared land within National Parks which may be suitable for plantation establishment.

As a result more than 400 individual parcels of cleared land, totalling over 9,400 ha, were identified as suitable for reforestation. Amongst the suitable areas identified were clearings in Kosciuszko National Park, including the Blowering Dam foreshore on the South-West Slopes, and high productivity parcels around Border Ranges National Park in Northern Rivers Region. Other areas include Goalon Head on the Far South Coast and areas in Warrumbungle, Werrikimbe, Mount Kaputar, and Kwiamble National Parks in Northern Directorate.

The body of the report discusses other potential areas including sites within Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve near Mudgee, "Nullo East" on the edge of the Wollemi wilderness, Goulburn River National Park, the former Bendethera property in Deua National Park, the Yalwal area within Morton National Park, Hat Head National Park, Willi Willi National Park, Guy Fawkes National Park, Chaelundi National Park and even Throsby Park Historic Site.

The report even suggests that in the future the NPWS land acquisition program should be linked to the suitability of the land for plantation establishment!

The identification of suitable plantation areas involved verification by NPWS regional staff of results from a desktop exercise identifying cleared land within the National Park estate. Regional staff were asked to assess whether these sites were cleared or not. This process of verification did not consider whether the cleared areas were in an early phase of regeneration, whether they supported native grassland and associated fauna species or whether the clearings had cultural heritage value.

One of the areas identified for a rehabilitation field trial is the Blowering foreshores in Kosciuszko National Park. In this area woodland vegetation is gradually regenerating naturally from intact woodland on the slopes to the east. Native tree species include box woodland trees such as Yellow Box

(E. melliodora) and Norton’s Box (E. nortonii) and other species such as Alpine Ash (E. delegatensis), Red Stringybark (E. macrorhyncha). Native grasses are common including Red Leg Grass (Bothriochloa macra), Kangaroo Grass (Themeda australis), Wallaby Grass (Austrodanthonia sp.) and Plume Grass (Dichelachne micrantha).

Regenerating native grassland habitats are rare in the National Park estate and may have value as a special habitat for particular species of birds and for reptiles. Grassy box woodlands are recognised as an endangered ecological community.

At a seminar late last year discussing the outcomes of the project it was suggested that faster growing eucalypts such as Red Stringybark be planted into this ‘cleared land’. No mention was made of the conservation value of the regenerating box woodland or grassland species, nor of restoring natural diversity of tree species which would have inhabited the land prior to clearing.

It was perceived as more important for selected tree species to have high growth rates so that the maximum amount of carbon could be stored, that is, the maximum economic return was the priority rather than biodiversity conservation.

This is contrary to all international principles of National Park management and the primary objective of the recently amended National Parks and Wildlife Act.

Throsby Park Historic Site is reserved due to the significance of the early colonial farm buildings which are present. The cleared areas have cultural heritage significance as a demonstration of the approach to land management adopted in early colonial times. This apparently escaped the attention of those preparing the report who have recommended this area for a rehabilitation field trial as well as the nearby Cecil Hoskins Nature Reserve which supports the threatened eucalypt, Paddys RiverBox (E. macarthurii).

In weighting values to determine the best land on which to establish plantations the report gives priority to site quality — the natural characteristics of the site which give rise to rapid tree growth, ‘as site productivity influences growth rates directly, and thus has a large bearing on economic viability’.

Restoration of lands degraded by past agricultural use is an important issue across New South Wales. This restoration is needed to ameliorate the effects of dryland salinity, to reduce rates of soil erosion and to maintain the health of catchments. The focus of this land restoration should be private land as a complement to the reserve system.

Arguably arrangements for Government- controlled land such as National Parks to soak up greenhouse credits will limit the extent to which rehabilitation of private land can be successfully pursued. If it is appropriate for Government to step out of corporate enterprises like banks, communication and airports then why should the Government actively participate in the carbon credit market?

The primary purpose of the reserve system is to conserve nature, not commercial development of a product, whether that product be wool, gold, cedar or carbon!