Nature's Gifts – National Parks Association of NSW

Australia’s Nature’s Gifts and Global Conservation Agreements

Posted by NPA NSWon June 1, 2023in Winter 2023Leave a comment

Bruce Gall
Former Director of the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service
Dr Graeme L. Worboys AM
Former Honorary Associate Professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University.

This is the final article in an 8-part series discussing our nature’s gifts.

On 19 December 2022, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) – so named for the cities it was developed in – was signed by representatives of 188 countries, an extraordinary achievement. The decade-long framework identifies 23 national biodiversity targets, one of particular interest to NPA members being the so-called ‘30×30’ target, in simple terms, the protection of 30 per cent of a country’s ecosystems by 2030. As 2 years have already been lost to Covid, the pressure is now on governments to get cracking on this crucial target.

Nature’s Gifts and Politicians

Posted by NPA NSWon February 28, 2023in Autumn 2023Leave a comment

Dr Graeme L. Worboys AM is an Honorary Associate Professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University. Bruce Gall is a former Director of the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service and is a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas.

This is the seventh article in an 8-part series discussing our nature’s gifts.

One of the greatest threats to nature’s gifts is not climate change or habitat destruction but the actions of our politicians. Our future leaders are generally attracted to a political career for reasons other than saving the planet. But there have been outstanding exceptions; some remarkable Labor, Liberal, Greens and even National Party politicians have made visionary contributions to protecting our nature’s gifts. With no disrespect to others who battled heroically to have parks created, we pay tribute to some of our political champions.

Visiting Nature’s Gifts

Posted by NPA NSWon December 1, 2022in Summer 2022Leave a comment

Dr Graeme L. Worboys AM is an Honorary Associate Professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University & Bruce Gall is a former Director of the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service.

This is the sixth article in an 8-part series discussing our nature’s gifts.

A decade of biennial visitor surveys by Roy Morgan Research confirms the continuing rise in popularity of NSW national parks, from 38 million domestic visits in 2008 to 60 million in 2018, the latter figure a 17% increase over 2016. Expenditure associated with this increase has been a boon to regional economies. City visitors and country businesses are a potentially powerful constituency in support of our national parks and their nature’s gifts.

Read More “Visiting Nature’s Gifts”

Nature’s Gifts – Series Introduction

Posted by NPA NSWon August 31, 2021August 30, 2021in Spring 2021Leave a comment

Bruce Gall is a former Director of the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Our national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, has weathered much criticism over the years. That unfashionable phrase, girt by sea, has had many detractors, and in 2020, the word young was replaced with one to make the anthem more inclusive, especially for First Australians.