Faced with shrinking budgets, many Queensland national parks are prioritising the upkeep of visitor facilities at the expense of biodiversity management, a new study has found.
Researchers from the James Cook University took an in-depth look at the management of 41 protected areas (PAs) in Queensland.
Report authors Professor Bob Pressey and Dr Ian Craigie said managers commonly lacked sufficient resources to carry out all the management activities required, so had to prioritise actions and decide on trade-offs between objectives.
Professor Pressey said many managers told the researchers that, when resources were scarce, trade-offs favoured the maintenance and cleaning of visitor facilities such as toilets, campsites and paths.
Conservation work sometimes takes a back seat. PIC: Valeriia Miller / Pexels
“This was primarily to avoid complaints from visitors,” he said. “In turn, this led to a shortage of resources for other activities such as those focused on biodiversity protection – for instance, management of fire, feral animals and weeds, and management of threatened species.”
Professor Pressey said the more experienced managers also noted that, in real terms, management budgets had been shrinking for many years, exacerbating the trend towards prioritising visitors over biodiversity.
“When budgets are constrained, as is almost always the case, the implications of prioritising visitor-related activities over biodiversity-related work are clear,” he said. “Biodiversity will be inadequately protected and managed and, in the long term, more likely to decline.”
He said the researchers found the least funded activity was monitoring the status of biodiversity.
“Ironically, this means if there are declines in biodiversity status – due to inadequate management of threatening processes, such as fire and invasive species – it’s unlikely those declines will be detected until they’re far advanced.”
Professor Pressey said each PA is affected by its local context and management, and the level of underfunding is idiosyncratic and varies from area to area.
“Similarly, the management objectives for PAs in Queensland are diverse, but the cardinal principle is that they must be managed for the permanent preservation of their natural and cultural values,” he said. “We have found that this cardinal principle is no longer guiding the allocation of management resources across protected areas in Queensland.”
It’s not only Queensland, it’s been like that in all states, National Parks had the budget cut in half in 2019
One of the reasons, that it is cut in half today, is the Nat. Parks, having moved their booking system on line, and the public, cannot just rock on up any day they like, if they just happen to be in the area, and pay in the envelopes supplied. Everybody used to pay in the envelopes, and were quite happy to do it that way. Now you need a credit card, and need to know what day you are going to be there, so their is no more spontanaety. Also this always brought out a ranger, every couple of days, to the park, and they could see if the park, was in need of work. This is not happening anymore. A ranger I know, only comes to a park near us once every six months now, and he used to come every 3 days.
Very true, if the weather looked good we would just rock up and go to our local NP but now in NSW you have to book 180 days prior to your stay. National Parks have lost their way.
Yep, don’t like the online system far to ridgid, and if you want to extend ? Last time we camped in a National Park was 2018, we’ll go back when the envelopes come back.
Not before time in many cases …. Clean facilities would be a very welcome change
National parks are starting to be like caravan parks these days not like it used to be very natural settings no bitumen parking areas but graded areas no flash concrete paths or flash board walks
has this all come about with people not thinking of there own safety and well-being
National Parks hierarchy don’t like people visiting their parks..they reckon the less the better…..
probably because we breathe too much of their air whilst there…or something..??
I Loved camping in NP, moreover, I will not, and have not for some time… The cost is one deterrent I am strongly against… Along with some other’s… To many to mention!!!!
I totally agree with Pat… It’s nothing but a big deterrent to keep us out of National Parks so they can sit on their bum’s and do nothing!!!!!
With regard to the National Parks, the New Way is worse then the Old Way. Each park should have a crew and Manager employed to look after the amenities and control the parks needs. The polly Waffle’s give lip service to the Parks at Election Time but run shy when when they are in a position to for fill their promise.
We have just done another big lap. We had to bypass many NPs because of the online booking. You have to have access to the internet to book and so many places, especially in NT and WA don’t have phone reception, let alone internet. When you just turn up, a camp host or Ranger will tell you to leave because you don’t have a booking. Even though you can see there is plenty of parking there. People go online online and book the maximum blocks they can get “just in case” they decide to go.
The whole system is ridiculous!
It is the visitors that fund some of the costs otherwise it would be the tax payers.
My experience in the many countries I have visited, is that, privatisation of the visitor facilities and in some cases even the road network where the private entity bids for the opportunity, works very well. Visitors pay an entry fee/day fee to enter the park which accrues to the parks department while costs for accomodation and facilities are paid separately to the management organisation.
I no longer visit National Parks because I do not agree with them using 1080 Poison as one of their conservation tools. It is a cruel, indiscriminate and inhumane poison and should be banned.
On-line booking definitely discourages visits and overnight stays. Can be very difficult to book when there is no data access which is often the case in more remote areas. I think the system is a ploy to reduce visitor numbers.
Governments continue to create more NPs but don’t allocate sufficient budget for existing parks.