National parks, reserves and other protected areas are vital to the survival of Australia’s unique fauna and flora – animals and plants found nowhere else in the world – and to our valuable nature tourism industry. National parks and other protected areas also provide many other valuable ‘ecosystem services’ (benefits of nature) including by protecting our rivers, coasts, forests and soils. 

Although progress continues to be made towards a truly ecologically representative protected area system which covers at least 17% of Australia’s total land area by 2020, Australia remains less than halfway to achieving this important commitment to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Some 1,691 Australian ecosystems and 121 species of national significance lack any representation in protected areas, while only 36 of 85 Australian bioregions have reached the 2020 commitment of 17% of total area protected. Approximately 53 million hectares would need to be protected to reach minimum standards of ecosystem protection. 

The key policy initiative needed to meet the Australian commitment under the Convention on Biological Diversity, conserve Australian wildlife, plants and ecosystem services, is restoration of the National Reserve System grants program, which was terminated in 2012-13. This could be achieved by the Australian Government restoring $170 million per year in funding to the National Reserve System Program from the existing Natural Heritage Trust budget. Doing so would provide sufficient funds to meet the 2020 Convention on Biological Diversity protected area commitment through the purchase or covenanting and management of new public, private and Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs). No new budget measures are required.