Structure NRS Plan of Management Guidelines

Structure NRS Plan of Management Guidelines

NRS Plan of Management Guidelines

National Reserve System

Plan of Management Guidelines

Management planning and the Australian Government

The National Reserve System (NRS) is Australia's network of protected areas, conserving examples of our natural landscapes and native plants and animals for future generations.

The following guidelines for NRS Plans of Management include information on some of the main elements of protected area management, including adaptive management, management effectiveness, and monitoring and evaluation.

What is a Plan of Management?

The primary purpose of a Plan of Management for an NRS property is to express the goals and management approach needed to achieve the primary management objective, nature conservation.

The Plans provide publicly available information on the values of the protected area.
They should explain in detail the actions which will be followed for the area’s conservation.

The Plans should include relevant monitoring and evaluation strategies and include performance indicators. Keep in mind that Plans are subjected to independent and public scrutiny and reporting.

The nature, scope and legal status of Plans of Management for protected areas vary across jurisdictions and governance (for example, crown, local government, NGO).

The preparation of formal government-endorsed Plans for individual protected areas can be a long and complex process.

Our intention is for conservation management agencies and organisations to adapt pre-existing processes and procedures in order to meet these requirements.

Plans must be endorsed by the relevant management agency (Minister, Board or Steering Committee) and meet the contractual arrangements of the financial agreement.

Principles of Protected Area Management

The following principles have been recognised as fundamental to the management of protected areas across Australia. They were developed by the NRS Task Group, a collective of State, Territory and Australian Government conservation agencies.

Interconnectedness of values and places

Protected area management aims to incorporate and integrate natural values, Indigenous cultural values and broader community and historic heritage values.

Protected areas are also part of broader bioregional, social, cultural and economic landscapes and they should be managed in this context.

Good neighbour

Protected area managers are economically and socially part of local and regional communities and recognise the need to be valued, responsible and active local and regional community participants and members.

Community participation and collaboration

Protected areas are conserved for the benefit of and with the support of the community and this is best achieved through awareness, understanding and involvement.

Environmental stewardship

Responsibility for protecting and conserving protected area values extends beyond the management body to include lessees, licensees, relevant public and private authorities, visitors, neighbours and the wider community.

Transparent decision making

The framework and processes for decision-making should be open and transparent. The reasons for making decisions should be publicly available, except to the extent that information, including information that is culturally sensitive or commercial-in-confidence, needs to be treated as confidential.

Effective and adaptive management

Protected area management should apply an adaptive management approach to support continuous improvement in management. This includes monitoring the outcomes of management and taking account of the findings of monitoring and other research to improve management effectiveness. Management decisions should have a firm scientific basis or be supported by relevant experience. Management bodies need to maintain and improve their capacity to learn from experience, to value and build staff expertise and draw on input from other stakeholders,

Appropriate use

Access to and use of protected areas must be consistent with the long term protection of their values, the maintenance of physical and ecological processes and agreed management objectives.

Indigenous people's knowledge and role

Protected areas are part of landscapes that have supported and continue to give identity to Indigenous people who have traditional and historical connections to and knowledge of the land. Indigenous people are recognised and respected as the original custodians of the lands, waters, animals and plants within protected areas. Their living and spiritual connections with the land through traditional laws, customs and beliefs passed on from their ancestors are also recognised. The role of Indigenous organisations in the protection and management of country is acknowledged.

Applying the "precautionary principle"

Protection of the natural and cultural heritage of the NRS should include identifying and taking appropriate actions to avert and actively manage emerging threats and risks. Effective management must be based on the best available information. However, where there are threats or potential threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation or harmful disturbance to natural and cultural places.

Inter-generational and intra-generational equity

Management seeks to ensure that the health, diversity and productivity of the environment and the integrity and significance of cultural places are maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations and that decisions affecting current generations are socially equitable.

Governance

International standards

When providing financial assistance to successful applicants for new additions to the NRS, the Australian Government applies international conservation standards.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has worked with environment agencies around the world to develop an agreed framework for the governance of protected areas. The framework classifies management regimes and provides guidance for appropriate management objectives under each regime.

Each NRS property must be managed in accordance with one or more IUCN protected area categories. The categories provide a global benchmark to assess the appropriateness of management objectives in any given protected area. The IUCN protected area management category is nominated in the application process and will be confirmed in the Financial Agreement.

The IUCN defines a protected area as:

‘A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.’

The IUCN has recently revised Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. Appendix 1 briefly lists and describes the IUCN protected area management categories. Appendix 2 provides a more detailed summary of the management objectives for each IUCN protected area management category. This information is useful in developing the management objectives for a protected area.

IUCN Protected Area Management Categories

IUCN category / Primary Objective
Ia / Strict Nature Reserve / To conserve regionally, nationally or globally outstanding ecosystems, species (occurrences or aggregations) and/or geodiversity features: these attributes will have been formed mostly or entirely by non-human forces and will be degraded or destroyed when subjected to all but very light human impact
Ib / Wilderness Area / To protect the long-term ecological integrity of natural areas that are undisturbed by significant human activity, free of modern infrastructure and where natural forces and processes predominate, so that current and future generations have the opportunity to experience such areas
II / National Park / To protect natural biodiversity along with its underlying ecological structure and supporting environmental processes, and to promote education and recreation
III / Natural Monument or feature / To protect specific outstanding natural features and their associated biodiversity and habitats
IV / Habitat/species management area / To maintain, conserve and restore species and habitats
V / Protected landscape/seascape / To protect and sustain important landscapes/seascapes and the associated nature conservation and other values created by interactions with humans through traditional management practices
VI / Protected area with sustainable use of natural resources / To protect natural ecosystems and use natural resources sustainably, when conservation and sustainable use can be mutually beneficial

(IUCN 2008)

Objectives common to all six protected area categories

The following objectives may apply to all protected area categories.

All protected areas should aim to:

  • conserve the composition, structure, function and evolutionary potential of biodiversity
  • contribute to regional conservation strategies (as core reserves, buffer zones, corridors, stepping stones for migratory species etc)
  • maintain diversity of landscape or habitat and of associated species and ecosystems
  • be of sufficient size to ensure the integrity and long term maintenance of the specified conservation targets or be capable of being increased to achieve this end
  • maintain the values for which it was assigned in perpetuity
  • be operating under the guidance of a management plan and monitoring and evaluation program that supports adaptive management, and
  • possess a clear and equitable governance system.

All protected areas should also aim where appropriate to:

  • conserve significant landscape features, geomorphology and geology
  • provide regulatory ecosystem services, including buffering against the impacts of climate change
  • conserve natural and scenic areas of national and international significance for cultural, spiritual and scientific purposes
  • deliver benefits to resident and local communities consistent with the other objectives of management
  • deliver recreational benefits consistent with the other objectives of management
  • facilitate low impact scientific research activities and ecological monitoring related to and consistent with the values of the protected area
  • use adaptive management strategies to improve management effectiveness and governance quality over time
  • help to provide educational opportunities (including about management approaches), and
  • help to develop public support for protection.

Public consultation

Where the land has been acquired with the assistance of Australian Government funds, public contribution and consultation is required in developing the Plan of Management.

It is important to involve the people affected by management of the property and to give the public an opportunity to understand what is being proposed, and to provide meaningful comment.

The extent of consultation should be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each protected area.

For private protected areas, the extent of the Plan and degree of consultation required is negotiated in the contract establishing the protected area.

Allowable uses in a protected area

The primary use of a protected area is managing the land for the conservation of nature. There may be other uses of the land, but in general, the land manager must not undertake land management practices that will be harmful to the objectives of the designation of the protected area.

Where there is a conflict between the main objective of nature conservation and other uses, nature conservation will take priority.

All uses of the NRS property must be in keeping with the primary objective of your specific IUCN protected area management category (see Appendix 2). The protected area management categories allow a wide range of uses depending on the designated category.

The Plan of Management must provide for a monitoring and evaluation program that supports adaptive management. Monitoring should demonstrate that there is a direct benefit to the conservation of nature on the property and that there is no loss of biodiversity values.

Protected areas should aim to maintain - or ideally, increase - the degree of naturalness of the ecosystem being protected.

In the IUCN protected area management categories I to IV, the primary objective is nature conservation with an additional objective of conserving cultural values.

In category V, there may be a primary objective to maintain a balanced interaction of nature and culture through the maintenance of traditional management practices.

Category VI allows for the protection of natural ecosystems and the traditional low impact sustainable use of natural resources.

Large scale industrial harvest of natural resources is not allowed and the majority of the protected area must be retained in its natural condition.

Undertaking commercial enterprises like eco-tourism or nature based tourism are allowed, as long as they provide educational, recreational and visitor opportunities. However, they must be in keeping with the IUCN protected area management objectives.

The NRS recognises that when protected areas are established, some cannot be precluded from the protected area because of pre-existing rights like mining, grazing, beekeeping and traditional use.

Every effort should be made to reduce and remove uses that are counter to the nature conservation objective.

There are also a number of specific uses for which the management plan may establish specialised zones. In some cases, it may be appropriate to establish zones for visitor facilities, tourist lodges, protected area management infrastructure, indigenous communities and permitted use areas (such as rock climbing).

The IUCN has provided guidance on this issue and suggests that these non-nature conservation uses do not occupy more than 25 percent of the protected area. The primary objective should apply to 75 per cent of the protected area – ‘the 75 per cent rule’.

The Plan must specifically describe allowable uses, including access for the public and those associated with use or exploitation of natural and cultural resources. Allowable uses must support the primary nature conservation objective.

All management should take into account the national, state and local government planning and legislative frameworks. This will ensure compliance with laws and regulations that apply to the property.

Managing the implications of climate change

Climate change will affect Australia’s biodiversity in many different ways. Protected areas should be managed to maintain high species diversity, healthy and functioning ecosystems and to reduce the likelihood of species extinction and genetic loss.

Plans of Management should give due consideration to:

  • understanding key values for protection and their requirements
  • protecting key habitat (for example, refugia)
  • maintaining ecological processes and ecological patterning in all native ecosystems and ecological communities
  • managing threats in the landscape
  • dealing with landscape-scale issues.

Managers will need to play a critical role in observing and monitoring changes in species, ecosystems and threats across the landscape.

Water management

Our growing economy and climate change is putting extreme pressure on water availability. Protected areas in agricultural regions will need to effectively manage their water use. Managers need to be conscious of water flows and the impact of on-ground management actions on the hydrology of the area. Possible management interventions may include protecting wetlands or accessing groundwater for drought refuges and staging posts for mobile native species. Depending on the location of your protected area, managing water availability for freshwater ecosystems could be an area of emphasis in your plan.

Subsidiary plans

As Plans provide the broad, overarching management goals of a protected area, they should be supported by subsidiary documentation focusing on implementation. For example, fire management or weed strategies will outline the practical, detailed actions required to achieve the management goals of your Plan.

Publication of Plan of Management

For protected areas established or purchased with Australian Government funding, once a Plan of Management is adopted, it should be made available for public access, preferably by publishing on the internet. This will allow for transparency and accountability in the use of public funds and the management of the protected area.

Management effectiveness

Under Caring for our Country, a primary target of the National Reserve System is to ensure that new protected areas are managed effectively to maintain key biodiversity values in a changing environment.

This target reflects nation-wide efforts to improve the management of protected areas and the development of management, evaluation and reporting frameworks to support protected area managers.

The Directions for the National Reserve Systems: A Partnership Approach (NRMMC 2005) outlines agreed national goals for improving protected area management in Australia. Various studies by the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) provide the international context.

Management effectiveness frameworks

The WCPA is currently working with Parks Australia, Parks Victoria and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to develop new state of the parks reporting processes based on the WCPA framework for evaluating the management effectiveness of protected areas.

Meanwhile, the Directions for the National Reserve Systems: A Partnership Approach (NRMMC 2005) addresses protected area management effectiveness. Management effectiveness is further developed in the current revision of this national policy document.

Some draft principles for the effective management of Australia’s National Reserve System have been developed to provide some insight into what we are seeking to achieve (Figure 1).

Management effectiveness evaluation can enable and support an adaptive approach to management of protected areas by:

  • assisting in effective resource allocation between and within sites
  • promoting accountability and transparency by reporting on effectiveness of

management to interested stakeholders and the public

  • involving the community, building constituency and promoting protected area

values (Hockings et al 2006).

Figure 1. Draft principles for the effective management of protected areas - themes and key components

APPROPRIATE / INFORMED / ADAPTIVE / ACCOUNTABLE
Values driven
(Natural and Cultural) / Information-based decision making that incorporates science and local and traditional knowledge / Outcome focussed and consistent with WCPA framework / Meets corporate reporting requirements
Links with whole of landscape approaches to natural resource management and bioregional/strategic planning / Objectives and outputs clearly defined / Baseline monitoring framework in place / Reports publicly available in simple terms and language
Protection mechanism suitable to context / Risks assessment process in place / Ongoing investment in research into values and management outcomes / Facilitates State of the Parks Reporting
Precautionary Principle applied to on-ground management actions / Supported by appropriate data systems / Supported by suitable and repeatable analytical techniques / Supports State of the Environment Reporting
Meets legal requirements / Stakeholders contacted and engaged in decision making / Transparent evaluation processes with peer review
Meets or exceeds industry standards
Equitable and builds capacity of staff and management partners

Adaptive management