Don’t Overwhelm Public with 100’s of Plans
National Parks Association of NSW

Don’t Overwhelm Public with 100’s of Plans

MEDIA RELEASE 29 February 2001

The National Parks Association of NSW defended recent progress by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) on preparing plans of management, despite criticism by the NSW Opposition.

The Auditor-General’s report, released today, records the numbers of plans of management for national parks and nature reserves that the NPWS is required to prepare, and how many are finalised.

"It showed that only 119 plans of management have been adopted from the 498 NPWS reserves that require a plan", said Mr Andrew Cox, NPA Executive Officer.

"While this is not satisfactory, the current rate of preparation and public exhibition of plans of management is at the limit of what the public can respond to without being overwhelmed."

"All draft plans of management area are placed on public exhibition. Already we are being overwhelmed by the number of plans that community groups such as the NPA respond to. We currently get several plans every month to comment on."

"NPA has been critical in the past of the rate of preparation and approval of plans of management. Both Labor and Coalition Governments have been responsible."

The National Parks and Wildlife Act states that the NPWS must prepare a plan of management for each conservation reserve ‘as soon as practicable’ after they are created (s 72). The preparation rate has significantly increased over the last 2 years."

"However there are still some national parks, such as the Blue Mountains, Wollemi and Kanangra-Boyd National Parks that a plan of management has been under preparation for more than 25 years! These are sitting on the Minister for the Environment’s desk and should be signed immediately," said Mr Cox.

"But there have been about 150 new NPWS reserves compared with five years ago (which we congratulate the Government for), and it will take some time to develop these plans. Many of these areas are small and preparation of a plan of management is a low priority. When the plan is developed, they may be simple documents."

"The NPWS has already put in place a process that ensures national parks without plans of management are managed according to the precautionary principle, a strategy endorsed by the NPWS Advisory Council."

"This ensures issues such as weed, feral animal and fire management and rehabilitation programs are properly carried out,".

"Therefore claims made today by the NSW Opposition that the failure to prepare national park plans of management is contributing to ‘escalating likelihood of animal extinctions’ are false", concluded Mr Cox.


Contact: Andrew Cox 9299 0000 or 0438 588 040

28 February 2001


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