World News – UA – Queensland government commits $ 60 million to create and protect more national parks

With three days to go into interim mode for this year’s election, the Queensland government has kept a promise made in the last election

He has put in place a strategy to protect more wilderness areas in Queensland and has committed $ 60 million in funding

This means he can buy more land to turn it into national parks, pay private landowners to create their own wilderness areas, and employ more native rangers

The ABC reported in August that conservation groups are warning the government that it is running out of time to implement its promised protected area strategy and make decent efforts to meet its conservation goal

He had promised to design the strategy, with the aim of protecting 17% of the state

But the government’s 10-year plan to protect and create more national parks does not have as much funding as conservation organizations have declared it necessary

The Conservation Council of Queensland and the Pew Charitable Trusts have said $ 135 million a year is needed to buy enough wilderness areas and pay private owners to protect them

« We will take the $ 60 million as a down payment and hope there will be additional investment in future budget cycles, » said Andrew Picone of the Queensland Conservation Council

One of the most important aspects of the government’s changes, he says, is giving private lands the same level of protection

« For the first time, we have national park level protection for private land, so it’s a very high level of protection and it’s a first in Australia, » said M Picone

« It is high time that we made a serious investment in this area, so I think this gives really important momentum and direction, » said association president Susanne Cooper.

Ms Cooper said the money could be ‘leveraged’ to seek more funding, but put the spending in context

« You know, upgrading an 11-kilometer highway costs $ 700 million and that money is easily found, » she said

Ms Cooper said there were two key areas that needed a boost: the number of national parks and the number of rangers to look after the parks and visitors.

« We are way behind the Australian standard, we are way behind internationally and we have to catch up, » she said

But there is cautious optimism that this funding and the strategy itself is the start of something big

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Queensland, protected area, natural environment