|
|
| Home | Search | Site Map | Help | |
Chapter 3: Government in Partnership
Australia begins its second century as a nation with many environmental assets. Among the most important of them are Australians themselves who are acutely conscious of their environment with its unique flora and fauna.
Until recently, protecting Australia's environment and managing its natural resources was the preserve of governments, principally state governments. The Commonwealth Government was an occasional participant, and local government was not important. Environmental regulations set minimum standards to be met by industry and the community. There was little incentive to achieve higher standards.
Now the Commonwealth Government recognises that leadership and the best ideas often come from partnerships with the private sector, local communities, industry and lobby groups, and other levels of government.
The Prime Minister, in his 2000 Federation Address, stressed the importance of meeting social policy challenges by strengthening `a social coalition built on a partnership of individuals, families, business, government, and welfare and charitable organisations'. This concept is relevant to meeting environmental challenges and achieving sustainable development.
The combined efforts of governments at all levels, corporations, community groups and individuals are required to protect Australia's environment and sustainably manage the nation's natural resources. Government should enhance people's participation in environmental policy development and promote a framework for partnership in environmental activities.
The Government accepts the need to provide a regulatory `safety net' to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, which enters into force in July 2000, offers a regulatory safety net for Australia's environment which is world's best practice.
The Government has reformed its environment protection laws to reduce duplication between levels of government and to clarify the role for the Commonwealth in matters of national environmental significance. These reforms reduce environmental regulation and allow government to help industry and the community to apply sustainable practices.
The Government has a wide range of partnership arrangements in place focussing on many environmental challenges. Just a few examples are given in this statement - working with communities through the Natural Heritage Trust, working with industry, managing Australia's World Heritage areas, and working in the Antarctic environment - to illustrate the breadth of activities and partnerships.
The Natural Heritage Trust has allowed the strong commitment to sustainable natural resource management to translate into getting out and doing the things that need to be done `on the ground'.
The Government committed $1.5 billion to the Natural Heritage Trust - the largest financial commitment to environmental action by any Australian federal Government in history. More than $700 million has been approved for over 6,400 Natural Heritage Trust projects.
More than 67 per cent of one-stop-shop programme approvals (representing the majority of the Trust's programmes including Landcare and Bushcare) were awarded to community projects in 1999-2000.
Chart 1: Percentage of Approved Funding Going to Community Under the
Natural Heritage Trust
Operation of the Natural Heritage Trust combines the knowledge and resources of farmers, indigenous people, scientists, the community, environmental groups and governments and encourages them to work together.
Most projects funded by the Natural Heritage Trust are cooperative efforts between the community, governments and experts. Often three or more different organisations and groups cooperate on a project.
The success of the Trust is best described by the groups who undertake the projects. Five case studies are outlined below, illustrating the cooperative partnerships the Government is involved in. They describe some of the environmental challenges and some of the innovative methods to meet those challenges.
Hindmarsh Biolink Project, Western Victoria
The Hindmarsh Biolink Project in the wheat fields of western Victoria's Wimmera plains, which have been over-cleared in the past, is one of many Bushcare projects.
Biolink consists of four linked projects funded through the Natural Heritage Trust to a total of $392,500 so far. The project aims to re-establish links between the Big and Little Deserts through a series of vegetation corridors along broad road reserves and through farmland.
First year achievements of the project include 169 hectares of newly established vegetation, 55 hectares of vegetation on private property protected, 76,000 seedlings planted by machine or hand, and 222 kilometres of direct seeding lines completed.
The mayor of the local Shire of Hindmarsh, Councillor Daryl Argyle, has been a driving force behind the project. Councillor Argyle has brought the partners together, negotiated for additional state funding and made Biolink the symbol of Hindmarsh Shire's new direction. Partners in the project include the Shire, Greening Australia Victoria, wheat farmers, local sponsors, city volunteers, state governments and the Commonwealth Government.
Although the project area is three hours from Melbourne, a planting weekend in August 1998 attracted so many volunteers from Melbourne and beyond that there was nearly a shortage of plants. Over 1,000 visitors came, camped and helped with the project.
The project is now in its second year and has achieved significant results in terms of large areas direct seeded and planted. The project is working on the scale of annually achieving rates of 80,000 trees, shrubs and understorey seedlings planted, several hundred kilometres of direct seeding lines, and about 60 kilometres fenced. The goal is to plant 220,000 seedlings over an area of 425 hectares, and to protect 3,850 hectares of existing vegetation using 240 kilometres of fencing.
Some of Victoria's rarest eucalyptus species have been identified in the area as a result of this project. Some are known from just a few sites and are still the subject of taxonomic studies. With so little natural vegetation remaining on the Wimmera plains, this project is of special importance.
Farm Planning - Helping Profits, Helping the Environment
Bruce Archer of `Chester' near Westwood in northern Tasmania is a strong supporter of whole farm planning. With his wife, Katrina, and 20 other members of landcare groups, he participated in a whole farm planning course.
Bruce and Katrina had been active in landcare for some time, as founding members of the Lower Meander Valley Landcare Group in 1990 and through the introduction of sustainable farming practices on their own property.
`The planning course we did through the landcare group really got us motivated,' Bruce said.
`It crystallised our thinking and meant we could set short- and long-term goals. Setting two-, three- and five-year goals helps you look back and see how you're going. Our group was the first in our area to do the course but now everyone's done it. I think farmers everywhere should go through the exercise.'
Whole farm planning is supported by the Natural Heritage Trust through the National Landcare Programme as a way of providing farmers with the skills to take control of their future, to plan for change, and to better manage the economic, social and environmental risks associated with farming. Over 12,000 participants attended 880 group workshop programmes across Australia during 1998-99.
Bruce has achieved the main objectives of his five-year plan. The plan included introducing direct drilling to minimise tillage and to reduce soil structure decline, becoming self-sufficient in water storage, introducing a `no fallow' system in summer to reduce erosion and to alleviate soil damage, introducing time-controlled grazing to better utilise pasture, using fertilisers more efficiently, and incorporating farm forestry for environmental benefit and financial diversification. The farm plan links in with the Lower Meander Landcare Group's Rivercare plan, also supported by the Trust.
Bruce and Katrina have placed an emphasis on establishing sustainable production regimes that harmonise with natural systems.
The environment has been a big winner as a result of the farm plan. With funding from the Natural Heritage Trust the Archers have removed willows along the Meander River and have fenced off 2.5 kilometres of riverside vegetation. They aim to fence a further two kilometres of riverbank to prevent erosion, encourage natural revegetation and improve water quality.
`Our aim is to be as sustainable as possible in as many areas as achievable,' Bruce said.
Bruce Archer won the 1999 National Landcare Programme Tasmania Individual Landcarer Award and the Cotton Australia Tasmania Primary Producer Award.
Bird Watchers Undertake Survey
The Natural Heritage Trust has supported 20,000 bird surveys by providing Birds Australia with $1.2 million to catalogue Australia's 700-plus bird species and produce a new Bird Atlas of Australia by 2001.
Birds Australia Project Organiser, Dr Geoff Barrett, said the organisation had been overwhelmed by the goodwill of people around the country who volunteered to take part in the survey.
`More than 300,000 birds have been sighted by the volunteer bird watchers, which has been a tremendous help to our project,' Dr Barrett said.
Dr Barrett said that volunteers have helped to establish a foundation set of sites in which birds will be surveyed each season and compared with the local habitat conditions and management history.
`We're starting to get good samples of a range of different management histories of these sites and this helps us to make landscapes more attractive to birds,' Dr Barrett said.
Many of the sites have been regenerated by tree-planting and habitat recovery programmes in recent years. Documenting the histories of the sites and their ability to once again attract bird populations is a significant part of the four-year study.
The new bird atlas will provide a valuable means for measuring changes to the status and distribution of bird species across the whole of Australia from a known benchmark. This information is providing a valuable framework for evaluating the revegetation activities funded through the Natural Heritage Trust and in time may provide a useful monitoring tool of biodiversity values.
Saving Loggerhead Turtles, Western Australia
Saving the loggerhead turtles at Coral Bay is a good example of Coastcare's protection of coastal and marine species.
Supported by the Coral Bay Progress Association and headed by `Turtle Man' Peter Mack, this project is designed to protect loggerhead turtle hatchlings from feral foxes and four wheel drive traffic.
Loggerhead turtles regularly nest along the beaches of Bateman Bay, near Coral Bay, in Western Australia. Unfortunately, feral foxes frequent the area and are a threat to loggerhead turtles.
`The foxes dig up and eat the turtle eggs and prey on hatchlings as they emerge from the sand,' says Peter.
`Four wheel drives are another threat because the tyre grooves left behind can create trenches that the hatchlings fall into, preventing them from reaching the sea.'
The group's volunteers identify nests the morning after the turtles have laid their eggs at night. They protect the nests with stout branches, cages and signs, and monitor them to stop fox predation.
`Once the hatchlings are ready to leave their nests, we help them reach the water safely,' says Peter. `Hundreds of people watch them over the course of the hatching season.
`Their presence actually protects the hatchlings because its scares away the foxes and seagulls.
`By stopping the foxes digging up the nests, several thousand extra baby loggerhead turtles reach the sea each year. But it will be another 30 years before we expect to see an increase in the number of adult breeding turtles.'
Outstanding New National Park for South Australia
A spectacular addition to South Australia's national parks system was announced in December 1999.
The Gawler Ranges National Park, 350 kilometres north-west of Adelaide, has been created through the $1 million purchase of Paney Station in the southern Gawler Ranges. The Commonwealth provided up to $822,000 under the Natural Heritage Trust funded National Reserve System Program. The National Parks Foundation of South Australia contributed $50,000 towards the project.
The 120,000 hectare reserve was the first new national park in South Australia in eight years and will join the Flinders and Gammon Ranges as major conservation drawcards. It is a dramatic landscape of red volcanic hills, covered with yellow spinifex contrasting with grey tones of blue bush and saltbush, in broad sweeping valleys crossed by tree-lined watercourses.
The new Gawler Ranges National Park will ensure the conservation of rare blue bush and saltbush communities. It is home to at least 21 rare and threatened species including the yellow-footed rock-wallaby, southern hairy-nosed wombat, central long-eared bat, sandhill dunnart, malleefowl, pink cockatoo, crimson mallee, honey myrtle, mallee box and woolly spinifex.
The area is a transition zone between the drier pastoral regions to the north and the wetter arable districts to the south. It is a mixing area of western and eastern species, and arid and temperate species, so there is high biodiversity in the plants (210 species) and birds (120 species).
The park contains some of the oldest pastoral heritage sites in South Australia, particularly Old Paney Station, the site of the first police camp in the area, which was established in 1864.
In addition to developing community partnerships to achieve effective environmental outcomes, the Government is encouraging and helping industry to effect positive environmental change.
The Government is working with industry to move `beyond compliance' - getting ahead of regulation and moving towards environmental best practice, cleaner production and clean technology. Many industries are developing codes of conduct that outline reasonable steps for preventing or minimising environmental harm caused by an activity, often aiming to achieve a higher standard than required by regulations.
Australian industry has made significant improvements in its environmental performance.
To be strong, Australia's economy must achieve economic growth in a way that is environmentally sustainable. The Government is working with industry to ensure that growth is achieved with minimal environmental costs.
The achievement of sustainable development requires a concerted effort from all sectors. In its partnerships with industry the Government has developed a Business of Sustainable Development Strategy. This strategy will accelerate the move of business and industry towards sustainable development. This year, the Government will spend $7.6 million to improve eco-efficiency and implement environmental solutions.
The Government will develop closer working relationships with industry to encourage it to go beyond compliance. Activities will include more consistent regulations, economic instruments to encourage eco-efficiency, and collaborating with the finance, accounting and legal sectors. The Government also will lead by example and will `green' its own operations.
In working with industry, the Government will provide tools and resources for businesses to implement environmental improvements. Businesses will be encouraged to pursue sustainable development and the level of environmental information and awareness will be increased throughout the business sector. The aim is to establish environmental performance as core business, integrated with other performance management systems.
Sustainable development requires the expertise and technology to manage and provide solutions. Mainstream business already has developed some innovative approaches to environment protection and these management systems, best practice approaches, treatment processes and equipment form the basis of an emerging environment business sector.
The Government will work with industry to identify the capabilities in environment protection and to facilitate the delivery of best practice environmental solutions. The Government also will build capacity for environment initiatives, here and overseas, and will help market Australian capabilities.
The Government is encouraging business to be environmentally accountable to its shareholders and the public. The Government recently launched the National Pollutant Inventory, a public database that tracks certain pollutants being released to the environment by major industry emitters and sources in particular locations. The Government also encourages public environmental reporting.
Public Environmental Reporting
Public environmental reporting is a process whereby an organisation voluntarily provides public information on its environmental performance and achievements as well as its contribution to sustainability. It generally involves collecting information on the impacts of the organisation on the environment, and its performance in managing those impacts. Public environmental reports include information on environmental policies; consumption of water, energy and raw materials; waste and emissions of greenhouse gases; regulation compliance; and details of community consultation.
The Government has provided $240,000 to fund environmental reporting extension officers to work with three key industry and business groups - the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Australian Industry Group. These organisations are also putting resources into the project. Over the next 12 months the officers will communicate with the business members of these organisations to provide them with effective and practical ways to develop public environmental reports.
A Framework for Public Environmental Reporting - An Australian Approach has been developed and launched. This document outlines reasons for reporting, provides a guide on how to go about developing a public environmental report and gives suggestions on issues to be reported. It will greatly assist the extension officers to promote the concept to business organisations.
Dr John Burgess, the Vice President of Safety, Environment and Technology at BHP, has acknowledged the close relationship between the environment and community.
`Good social and environmental management can be entirely consistent with achieving real economic and business benefits,' he was reported as saying. `A number of projects in recent years have delivered substantial greenhouse benefits as well as being sound investments in their own right.'
Information about public environmental reporting can be found at:
http://www.environment.gov.au/epg/environet/eecp/tools3.html
Australia has been at the forefront of programmes encouraging cleaner production and waste reduction. We are now among the world leaders in embracing the new concept of eco-efficiency. In simple terms, eco-efficiency means `doing more with less' - using environmental resources more efficiently in economic processes.
WasteWise
WasteWise is a partnership with the construction industry to minimise waste in the building and construction sector.
Industry groups have signed voluntary agreements with the Government to assess and reduce their construction waste going to landfill.
WasteWise reporting has highlighted many successes by industry in reducing construction and demolition waste, for example:
John Holland Group
The John Holland Group managed to recycle approximately 11,000 tonnes (40,000m3) of waste material, which represented 86.8 per cent of all waste produced throughout its national operations.
Project Coordination (Australia)
Project Coordination was able to recycle approximately 240 tonnes of waste material, which represented 68 per cent of all waste produced throughout its Canberra operations.
Australian Institute of Building
The Australian Institute of Building published a corporate statement of commitment to waste reduction and subsequently developed a Waste Minimisation Code of Practice for adoption by members of the Institute. The Code of Practice commits participating members to developing and promoting waste management best practice.
Housing Industry Association
The Housing Industry Association has published a Waste Management Guide for Residential Building as a contribution to WasteWise and is embarking on a national seminar series to educate members about waste management and broader environmental issues.
Managing Waste Oil
Each year about 500 million litres of oils and lubricants are sold in the Australian market. Only about one-third of this amount is being properly recycled or reused. While much of the 'missing' oil may be consumed and not be recoverable, stockpiled waste oil and waste oil in landfills is potentially a major environmental risk.
The Government is increasing oil recycling through the use of `product stewardship' - the concept that producers and users of a product share responsibility for it throughout its life. After extensive industry and stakeholder consultation, a model of product stewardship was developed based on the proper disposal or reuse of the waste oil being shared between producers and consumers. Financial modelling has shown that product stewardship increases the value of waste oil, encouraging appropriate recycling. Funds to pay the benefits are largely raised from an excise-style levy on oils entering the domestic market. This arrangement is based on the `user pays' principle - the users of the product bear some of the costs of recycling and proper disposal.
The new arrangements will begin this year. Existing state and territory regulations in respect of waste oil are not affected by product stewardship arrangements. It is a basic condition of receiving product stewardship benefits that a recycler is acting in accordance with relevant state or territory legislation.
The waste oil industry is dynamic and highly competitive. Recognising this, the Government is committed to flexible arrangements to accommodate the changes that will occur over the next four years, and has set aside $60 million in transitional funds to help in this process.
Australia's EnviroNET
Australia has a strong and growing environment business sector. This sector increases the capacity of individuals, government, and industry to address environmental problems. The Government promotes this sector through Australia's EnviroNET database.
Australia's EnviroNET is the premier national and international Internet gateway to Australia's environment business sector. It contains information on Australia's environment business capabilities, pollution control, research and development, and tertiary education courses. It provides an electronic platform for the dissemination of Australian solutions to environmental protection problems. Approximately 30,000 people access the database every month.
With a series of pathways and links, Australia's EnviroNET allows users to access information about leading environmental technology and environmental management solutions.
EnviroNET also helps develop environmental technology. It provides access to information on Australia's research and development capacities, details environment-related courses at Australian universities, colleges and training institutions, and outlines funding opportunities, both domestic and international, available to Australia's environment business sector.
Those pursuing improved environmental performance can access both suppliers of Australian environmental products and services, and information on cleaner production and eco-efficiency approaches, systems and services.
Australia's EnviroNET also contains details for Australian business and industry groups, and information on Australian community initiatives. It has links to Commonwealth Government, state, territory and local government web sites.
Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games: Green Games-Green Business
Australia is hosting the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games in September/October this year. The Government is committed to making the Sydney Games the `greenest' in history.
Environment Australia is using the unique opportunity provided by the Olympics to work with the environment management industry of Australia, the Olympic Coordination Authority, Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG), and the Olympic Roads and Transport Authority to showcase Australia's innovative environmental technologies and capabilities to the Australian public and overseas visitors.
Through its partnership in Business Club Australia, an Austrade initiative, Environment Australia will showcase Australian environmental technologies and display a range of industry promotion products. Environment Australia will also support the SOCOG Environment Pavilion which will highlight to visitors the environmental technologies and partnerships that enabled delivery of the world's first truly `green games'.
A complementary initiative is the development of an environment industry promotional package that includes publications on Australia's environmental achievements at the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Australia's leading edge environmental technologies and Australian sustainable mining technologies.
National Fuel Standards
Motor vehicles are significant contributors to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Improvements in fuel quality and vehicle technology are two of the most effective strategies for reducing pollutant emissions from motor vehicles. The Government has committed to improve the fuel economy of vehicles, to encourage alternative fuels, to move to international emission standards and to phase out leaded petrol.
Leaded petrol will be phased out nationally by 1 January 2002.
The Government, industry and other key stakeholders are developing new fuel specifications for petrol and diesel that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants from road transport. New fuel standards will also enable the adoption of improved vehicle technologies.
A New Tax System - Measures for a Better Environment outlines commitments to reduce the sulfur content of diesel fuel to 500 parts per million (ppm) in 2002 and 50ppm in 2006. It also introduces more stringent vehicle emission standards in line with best practice international standards.
A recent study of diesel vehicles emissions estimated that the implementation of government initiatives on vehicle emissions and fuel quality will reduce particles emissions by up to 75 per cent, and oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons by more than 50 per cent in urban areas.
New national fuel standards for petrol and diesel will be legislated by the end of 2000.
The refining industry's vision, as stated in its action agenda, is that `Australia will have a strong, efficient refining industry that is environmentally responsible'.
The Government's Australian Antarctic Division conducts research with Australian and international scientists to better understand environmental processes in Antarctica.
The Government, through the Australian Antarctic Division, works closely with other countries, industry, and the scientific community to protect one of the world's last frontiers. Australia was one of the first countries to sign the Antarctic Treaty's environmental protocol that provides a broad structure for protecting the environment south of latitude 60°S.
Australia's environmental responsibilities cover sites in the 6 million square kilometre Australian Antarctic Territory, thousands of kilometres of Antarctic coast, a vast segment of the Southern Ocean, the subantarctic Territory of Heard and McDonald Islands, and operations in Tasmania.
Projects in Antarctica are diverse such as protecting Australian fishing resources, cleaning up disused sites, and undertaking research to understand environmental processes. These activities are performed under some of the harshest climatic conditions on earth making the environmental problems even more difficult to remedy. Recent successes include reducing fuel usage in Antarctic stations, as shown in Chart 2.
Chart 2: Fuel Usage in Antarctic Stations
Saving the Patagonian Toothfish
The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) is one of a number of Government agencies that have worked together to lead the fight to reduce illegal and unregulated fishing that is threatening Patagonian toothfish stocks around Heard Island and other subantarctic islands.
Some toothfish stocks are close to commercial extinction because poachers are taking substantially more than is sustainable.
The Director of AAD, Dr Tony Press. said that the Australian Government has played a leading role in the international fight to protect the Patagonian toothfish from pirates.
'Denying market access for illegally caught fish is the most cost-effective way to address this problem, but Australia will continue to take a range of measures to combat pirate fishers, including patrols in the treacherous Southern Ocean to apprehend any foreign vessels fishing illegally,' said Dr Press.
A new international agreement, the Catch Documentation Scheme for Toothfish, negotiated by Australia at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources will help to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. The agreement requires fishing vessel masters and their flag states to declare where and how toothfish were caught. Signatories to the agreement represent 90 per cent of global markets for toothfish. They have all agreed not to import toothfish caught outside the scheme.
Antarctic Clean-up
Australia's abandoned sites at Wilkes, near Casey, and Atlas Cove on Heard Island are being cleaned up. In 2000-01 the Commonwealth will spend $95,000 on the Wilkes clean-up programme and $80,000 at Atlas Cove.
Mr Bruce Hull, the Australian Antarctic Division's Environment Officer, who is responsible for the clean-up programme, said that Antarctica's harsh climate and short summer operating seasons increase the costs of cleaning up Australia's abandoned sites.
'In the early days, when resupply ships were small, most nations operating in Antarctica disposed of their wastes in tips on the outskirts of their stations. Australia now has a legacy of disused sites, ranging from small field campsites to depots, tip sites, and in some cases abandoned stations that must be cleaned up under the Antarctic Treaty's environmental protocol.
'At Wilkes there are several tip sites adjacent to Newcomb Bay and currently we are concentrating on the paths of pollutants released during the clean-up and the effects of these on sea creatures,' Mr Hull said.
The station at Atlas Cove on Heard Island is considerably less contaminated than Wilkes, but the logistical difficulties of collecting, containing, and removing the wastes are comparable.
The project includes assessing site contamination, surveying the station's heritage values, and cleaning up windblown debris.
'These sites are of considerable historical significance. The station at Atlas Cove operated from 1948 to 1954. Our work in cleaning up our left overs will be used as a model for those other countries in Antarctica faced with similar problems,' Mr Hull said.
Antarctica in Mid-winter
Australian scientists have endured temperatures as low as -29°C within the winter pack ice to undertake the first ever midwinter investigation of areas of anomalous open water and thin ice (called polynyas) in Antarctic regions.
With wind speeds averaging 25 knots throughout the six-week study it was no picnic for the 62 dedicated scientists aboard the icebreaker RSV Aurora Australis. But their results justified the effort.
Head scientist Dr Ian Allison said that the processes that occur in these small but dynamic regions are important in determining global climate change.
'Oceanographers made detailed measurements of the changes over time of the salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen and currents of the total water column. Glaciologists determined the thickness and growth rate of the ice, and deployed 21 satellite-tracked buoys to record the rate and pattern of ice transport out of the polynya. Meteorological data was obtained and biologists trawled to sample krill and zooplankton populations, and counted seabirds, whales and seals.
'Coastal polynyas are important components in the formation of Antarctic bottom water which controls the deep ocean circulation, as 'ice-factories' for the total pack ice zone, as areas of intense heat loss from the ocean to the cold polar atmosphere, and as potential biological oases during winter,' Dr Allison said.
The study was conducted in the Mertz Glacier Polynya, centred near 66.5°S, 145°E, one of the largest persistent winter polynyas on the Antarctic coast.
Pack-ice Seal Survey
Australian scientists are counting the number of crabeater seals in Antarctica in one of the largest wildlife surveys ever undertaken. The crabeater seal is the dominant predator of krill, a major food source.
The survey has taken five years of preparation and involves five other countries (Argentina, Germany, Norway, the USA and the UK). The Australian survey team, led by Dr Colin Southwell, covered 8,000km of survey track by helicopter and 2,000km by ship in an area of more than 1 million square kilometres.
'Estimates of the crabeater seal population vary from 15-70 million. To make a more accurate estimate of their numbers requires a survey of the huge expanse of the pack-ice, which even at the late summer minimum is over 4 million square kilometres,' Dr Southwell said.
For more than 25 years, Australia has been one of the strongest supporters of the World Heritage Convention. Australia has 13 sites included on the World Heritage List for their outstanding universal natural and cultural values; more natural World Heritage properties than any other nation in the world. Australia's expertise and commitment to World Heritage is recognised by other countries who ask Australia to assist with the management of their World Heritage places.
Australia was the first country in the world to enact domestic legislation implementing the World Heritage Convention. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, which enters into force in July 2000, will strengthen protection for Australia's World Heritage properties.
The new Act regulates any action likely to have a significant impact on the World Heritage values of a World Heritage property. It ensures such actions are subject to a rigorous assessment and approval process.
Complementing the Act are strong partnerships with state governments and the community to ensure that world-class management is delivered on the ground in each World Heritage property. Management is guided by management plans approved by ministers, with strong input from community advisory committees and scientific advisory committees.
The Government has established strong partnerships with indigenous people in the management of World Heritage properties. Traditional owners are experts in land management. In Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta national parks the traditional owners have the majority of seats on the boards of management that determine management policy and draw up the plans of management.
The Commonwealth provides funding of more than $50 million each year for the management of Australia's 13 World Heritage properties. In the past four years the Government has provided more than $61 million to the states for more than 300 management projects in the World Heritage properties.
Chart 3: Commonwealth Funding to the States for World Heritage Management
1996-2000(a)
(a) Figures rounded to the nearest $100,000.
Wet Tropics Cassowary Recovery Strategy - a World Heritage Partnership with the Community
The endangered southern cassowary is a large, spectacular, tropical rainforest bird - the icon of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage property.
The total number of cassowaries in the rainforests of the Wet Tropics has been estimated at between 1,100 and 1,500 and declining.
With seed Commonwealth funding of $290,000 Environment Australia and the Wet Tropics Management Authority set up the Cassowary Advisory Group with representatives from local cassowary conservation groups, landholders, local government, on-ground conservation officers, and scientific advisers.
Chairman, George Mansford, the driving force behind the Cassowary Advisory Group, said that the energy, commitment and creativity of the group has produced a significant multiplier effect by drawing in industry, community and local government support.
'The original Commonwealth cash funding has multiplied to a budget of more than $445,000 and the non-cash contributions by cassowary conservation groups, landowners, local and state governments, wildlife parks and universities have multiplied the effects even further.
'In little more than two years, we have identified individual birds at risk and their range, helped design traffic controls to reduce the chance of birds being struck by cars, arranged dog management projects, coordinated cassowary corridors by planting cassowary food plants, installed fencing to stop birds crossing the road in high risk areas, supported research projects such as sedation trials and DNA analysis, and dramatically increased community awareness.
'The group demonstrates how members of the community can directly contribute to the protection of the World Heritage values that make the Wet Tropics so universally outstanding,' George Mansford said.
International Partnerships - the Asia-Pacific Focal Point
The Minister for the Environment and Heritage announced the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Focal Point (APFP) at the World Heritage Bureau and Committee meetings in Paris in July 1999.
The aims of the APFP are to help Asia-Pacific countries meet their obligations under the World Heritage Convention, and help ensure best practice management of World Heritage sites. Pacific states welcomed the initiative at a World Heritage meeting in Vanuatu in August 1999.
Already the APFP has been involved in placing three Australian professional officers in countries in the region through the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development Programme. The three officers will help develop a World Heritage nomination for Levuka (Fiji); work in Apia (Samoa) in the UNESCO Pacific office to develop management plans for the Solomon Islands World Heritage site at East Rennell; and assist Vietnam with management planning for the Ha Long Bay World Heritage Area.
The APFP is now working with Kiribati to help them to adopt the World Heritage Convention, and with Papua New Guinea to help develop their nominations of Kuk, an ancient agricultural site in the central highlands, and Bobongara, an archaeological site on the Huon Peninsula which is the location of the oldest human habitation site in the Pacific outside Australia.
