New Report Card for Queensland’s Protected Area Strategy

On 20 September, the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI) released its annual report card on progress towards the state’s Protected Area Strategy 2020­–2030 (PAS). The third report card produced so far, it covers an extended period from 1 October 2022 to 30 June 2024, aligning it with other governmental financial year reporting.

NPAQ’s CEO and Council commend DESI on this significant improvement on past reporting while recognising the hard path to tread in meeting the targets of the Strategy within its decade-long timeframe.

The stated focus over the reporting period has been on:

• expanding Queensland’s Protected Area Estate with strategic land acquisitions, guided by the Queensland National Park Investment Prioritisation Framework (Strategic Priority 1 in the PAS), and increasing Private Protected Areas

• enabling First Nations peoples’ co-stewardship of protected areas, including dedicating the state’s first national park on Aboriginal land in Queensland

• releasing the Ecotourism Plan for Queensland’s Protected Areas 2023–2028 to ensure national parks continue to add to the state’s economic coffers through sustainable ecotourism experiences that showcase our protected areas to a global audience

• further embedding day-to-day adaptive management in the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) for improved park planning and management.

So, how does the progress stack up against report cards from previous years?

Spend & budgeting

NPAQ is encouraged by clearly earmarked funds for the strategy’s duration, alongside predicted future spending at amounts greater than those in the earlier 2021 and 2022 report cards. However, figures in the millions – including $38.6 million over 5 years and $11.9 million annually to implement the PAS, $49.9 million over 4 years and $16.4 million annually for the Indigenous Land and Sea Ranger Program, and $51.9 million over 4 years with $3.8 million annually for delivering the Value-Based Management Framework (VBMF) to support visitor experience – fall considerably short of the funds dedicated to state infrastructure investments, such as the proposed $700 million for a new bridge to Bribie Island or $7.1-billion venue infrastructure program for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Questions must be asked whether $23.5 million over 4 years and $6.3 million annually is reasonable for implementing the Threatened Species Program 2020–2040, and how concerned we should be that the state’s more than 1000 threatened species will share the smallest amount set out in this report card. Of course, all these figures are in addition to the $262.5 million over four years for land acquisitions and capital works announced as part of the 2022 State Labor Budget.

In an election year, the LNP’s promise to add 150 new ranger roles and Labor’s recent announcement to invest $140 million in Queensland’s nature funds if re-elected would both prove welcome additions. NPAQ continues to urge existing and future governments to fund protected areas and biodiversity at a rate commensurate with Queensland’s status as a global biodiversity hotspot. We hope to see a continued trend of more investment in this space.

Reporting outcomes

As for earlier years, outcomes are reported under the PAS’s three Strategic Priorities: Grow, Care and Connect. Some highlights under these categories are mentioned below.

Grow

Over this time, Queensland’s Protected Area Estate grew by more than 595,000ha with additions to or expansions of Lockyer NP, Glasshouse Mountains NP, Bladensburg NP, Pioneer Peaks NP and Noosa NP, among others, as well as several additions to conservation parks and reserves and substantial large new protected areas with the acquisition of Vergemont Station and The Lakes. Private Protected Areas (PPA) have also increased – some 520,000ha of the total additions to protected areas came from PPAs. Large additions included 244,000ha Abingdon Downs and a 64,000ha extension to Crystalvale Nature Refuge. Queensland’s second special wildlife reserve, Edgbaston Reserve, a private protected area owned by Bush Heritage Australia, was also announced.

Care

Queensland’s first national park (Aboriginal Land) and first leaseback occurred during this time period with the Boodjamulla National Park (Aboriginal land) Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA), Perpetual Lease, Cooperative Management Agreement and Protocols signed at a historic hand back ceremony with the Waanyi Native Title Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC (Waanyi PBC) on 23 June 2023 at Parliament House, Brisbane.

Forty-six new Indigenous Land and Sea Ranger positions, from fifteen Traditional Owner groups, were added to the program, bringing the total number of rangers funded under this program to more than 200. 

To enhance decision-making, DESI and QPWS have begun the development of a VBMF Management Effectiveness Evaluation Strategy (MEE Strategy), scheduled for completion in June 2025. QPWS has also developed and rolled out the ‘QPWS Monitr’ application for in-field data capture and monitoring of park conditions.

The Australian and Queensland governments also nominated the cultural landscapes of Cape York Peninsula to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.

Connect

Considerable progress has been reported under this priority, particularly upgrading or restoring walking trails, amenities and infrastructure in Conondale NP, Bowling Green Bay NP, Whitsunday Islands NP, Hinchinbrook Island NP, Springbrook NP, Giraween NP, Crater Lakes NP, Daintree NP, and Magnetic Island NP, along with cultural signage projects across many more parks.

During this reporting period, a partnership was established with Friends of Parks Queensland, providing $500,000 over two years for technical and logistical assistance to volunteer groups undertaking conservation work in Queensland’s protected areas. NPAQ works closely with Friends of Parks and congratulates the organisation on exceeding its project milestones and expanding to support more than 20 Friends of Parks member groups.

Since 1 October 2022, fourteen visitor strategies for national parks have been approved. Although 249 management instruments covering 349 protected areas that were at, or approaching, their 10-year review point have been extended, the report does not detail whether the objectives of these instruments were partially met, or what measures were taken to ensure extensions would deliver better outcomes.

Considerations for next time

“Overall, the report’s assessment of progress on implementing the strategy is much improved,” says Russel Watkinson, the Chair of NPAQ’s Advocacy Committee. “Although, as NPAQ has suggested in past years, it would benefit from linking achievements to the Strategy’s more defined sub-actions, rather than just the broader actions. For instance, on p. 27 of the PAS, sub-action 6.3 reads “ensure fees and other user revenue support national park and recreation areas management”. It would be useful to have direct commentary on how this sub-action is being achieved, as this is an area of interest for NPAQ and other organisations.

Linking targets and timeframes directly to sub-actions would also help document the progress in real-time, particularly as the first and second tranches of transitioning land from state forests to protected areas have now been announced. On p.12 the report states that 2500ha of state forest land has so far been converted to protected areas, including parts of Mount Mee, West Cooroy, Deer Reserve, Beerwah and Luttons State Forests, as well as Wickham Timber Reserve. However, compared to the possible 20,000 ha of state forest that could be transitioned to national parks, it is easy to argue this amount represents slow progress.

So far, transitioning state forests has proved convoluted due to prescription in legislation and the need to wait for the expiration or remunerated revocation of leases or existing tenure agreements, a complication that has prioritised transitioning only the ‘non-contested’ sections. Clear targets for resolving these issues and setting deadlines for transitions would enable better progress tracking over the life of the strategy given we are fast heading towards 2025 – almost halfway to 2030.

With the release of this report card, Queensland’s Protected Area Estate currently only makes up 8.6% of the state, an underwhelming 0.4 percent up from the 2002 report card. If the goal is truly protecting 17% of Queensland to contribute to meeting the Federal government’s 30×30 obligations, cumulative deadlines and a firm end date should be swiftly established.

“NPAQ congratulates DESI and stakeholders in undertaking and reporting on this body of work that demonstrates the State’s commitment to growing, caring for and connecting Queensland’s protected areas,” says Chris Thomas, NPAQ’s CEO. “Having said that, we also acknowledge that much more needs to be done, and much faster in coming years, to ensure the Strategy does not fail to meet its stated objectives by 2030.”