Improving the management of Australia’s biodiversity through better synergy between private and public protected areas – a response to Australia’s biodiversity loss

Abstract

Australia has one of the highest rates of biodiversity loss globally. Both a lack of long-term monitoring and inefficient management have been identified as major contributing factors. Reviewing national and international reports, perspectives and scientific studies on Australia’s biodiversity management, I propose five steps to promote more effective management and monitoring of protected biodiversity assets by utilising available resources more efficiently. These steps involve: (1) better promotion of existing legislative instruments to protect biodiversity on private land; (2) creating strategic buffer zones around Australia’s World Heritage Areas (WHAs) – such buffer zones would provide opportunities to reduce threats to the biological assets of WHAs that emanate from adjacent areas; (3) better engagement with stakeholders of the buffer zones in managing WHAs through their participation in evidence-based monitoring and early-threat detection (e.g. as ‘Buffer-based Heritage Watch’); (4) targeted and coordinated restoration of native habitats adjacent to WHAs that are supported by effective carbon sequestration schemes; and (5) periodic integration of private protected areas within buffer zones into adjacent WHAs in accordance with the guidelines for extensions of WHAs by the World Heritage Committee. I demonstrate and justify the proposed steps using a spatial analysis of protected areas in Far North Queensland, but the proposed steps have relevance to protected areas in other Australian jurisdictions. The proposed steps would make current efforts of biodiversity protection and monitoring more efficient and would thus contribute to Australia’s response to its current loss of biodiversity.