A Study On Australian Protected Area Management

As the co-host of the World Parks Congress 2014, Australia has been making striking progress to protect its own natural areas and make important contributions beyond the borders. As early as 26 April 1978, the National Park, later renamed Royal National Park, was declared by the government of New South Wales. It is the first national park in Australia and the second in the world after the Yellowstone National Park established in 1872 in the United States, a pilot protected area in Australia and even around the world. Over the subsequent decades, thousands of protected areas have been declared in Australia. In order to better protect Australia’s natural landscapes and conserve native flora and fauna, a national protected area system was created by the Australian government, namely the National Reserve System. To date, the system has included over 10,000 terrestrial and marine protected areas with an area of over 137 million hectares. The Australian federal, state and territory governments have made great efforts to involve non-governmental conservation organizations, Indigenous people, communities and individuals in nature conservation and cultural heritage protection. Australia’s protected areas develop at a fast pace and its outstanding management mode has made significant contributions to the world protected area management.The overarching objective of the study is to examine Australian advanced management concepts, methods and regimes regarding protected areas, and make possible contributions to the improvement of the protected area management for other countries especially China. To this end, this MA thesis is intended to gain an insight into the Australian protected area management experience and its individually-developed characteristics of the management on the basis of the analysis of its legislative and administrative systems on protected areas and related management principles and practices.In the first chapter, an introduction will be made to the concept of protected areas, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and its protected area categories. In the second chapter, the history of protected areas and the National Reserve System in Australia will be presented. The third chapter is to deal with Australia’s management government agencies and non-governmental organizations by category, to be followed by Chapter Four, which examines the characteristics of Australia’s protected area management, including state-centered administration, protected area types, management players and governance modes. Chapter Five will explore the Australian advantages and expertise in managing protected areas. Chapter Six will investigate how and to what extent the Australian management experience can be applied to the Chinese management of its protected areas. The last chapter will state the overall situation of Australia’s protected areas and conclude the major reasons for Australia’s success in managing its protected areas.This thesis concludes that Australia has several competitive edges in managing its protected areas. Firstly, the comprehensive legislative and administrative systems are the cornerstone of the establishment and management of Australia’s protected areas. Secondly, Australian governments successfully involve private and non-governmental sector to participate in the protected area management. The last contributor to Australia’s success in managing its protected area is Australian governments’ consistent financial, political and technical support to promote its protected area system.