National Protection for National Parks

In recent months, many Australia’s National Parks seem to have been under siege, with proposals to allow hunting in some, while others had cattle released into their pristine habitats under the guise of ‘scientific research’. It is good news, then, that the Federal Environment Minister, the Hon. Tony Burke MP, has announced a plan to give greater protection to areas with high biodiversity, such as Australia’s National Parks, as Matters of National Environmental Significance.

The proposed regulation would mean that any new proposals to introduce grazing, logging, mining or inappropriate clearing would ‘trigger’ the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act), the Commonwealth’s primary piece of environmental legislation.

“We applaud this as a great first step, and we hope it will be part of a broader package of reforms” said Samantha Vine, Birds Australia Conservation Manager and convener of a conservation working group pushing for reform of the EPBC Act. “Recognising ecosystems of national importance, such as the National Reserve System, as Matters of National Environmental Significance is just one of the many recommendations outlined by Dr Hawke in his independent review of the reforms necessary to protect our natural environment,” she said.

It

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