Importance of PPAMcon

The Australian environment is under severe duress. We have critical water shortage and the interaction between development and conservation is often conflict based. National resource managements is increasingly complex with competing issues.

Through the efforts of key interest groups, environmental care and conservation management has had increased focus. It is now high on most government agendas. The private sector is increasingly responsive to environmental issues and its obligations.

Better conservation actions and outcomes are needed. Government’s resources to manage all their environmental responsibilities, such as national parks, properly are stretched to their limit.

Opportunities for wider community involvement, for greater private sector and business activities, innovative ways of resourcing our conservation efforts and allocating responsibilities, are yet to be fully examined.

It is time environmental care and conservation management became more integrated into our economic system so that it is a key element in day-to-day business decisions.

This means making greater use of market mechanisms to give signals and incentives for the private sector and the community to take the initiative in conservation activity.

It has become increasingly evident that parks and protected area managers, and those who have a stakehold on protected areas have no specialised single forum in which to share their ideas, identify emerging issues and update their knowledge. Currently this vital sector is reliant upon the peripheral treatment of its issues by sectors with a marginal or indirect interest in protected area management.