The Australian Government’s National Reserve System Programme (NRSP), which ran with dedicated funding from 1996 to 2013 is widely regarded as one of Australia’s most successful biodiversity conservation programs.
Through the NRSP, the Australian Government provided approximately $200 million in funding to assist the purchase of 371 properties (around 10 million hectares) for addition to the National Reserve System. An independent review of the NRSP found it “to be an important and cost-effective component of the Australian Government’s efforts to conserve Australia’s unique biodiversity”.
The NRSP offered up to two-thirds of the purchase price for private land that was acquired by state governments or land trusts/community groups for new public protected areas or privately protected areas, respectively, for inclusion in the NRS. The remaining one-third of the purchase price was sourced from elsewhere – such as state government budgets or philanthropic sources – who were often stimulated by the leverage inherent in this model. Private land purchased through the NRSP required agreements to be binding on the title of that land in perpetuity, or through a minimum of 99-year agreements.
Unfortunately, funding for the NRSP was not extended past 2013 and, as noted in the 2021 State of the Environment report “since 2016, the total extent of the NRS has remained steady, with fewer additions following the cessation of federal funding for acquisitions”.
Recommendation
The Australian Government should establish a new dedicated $5 billion fund for the purchase of land of high biodiversity importance to create new public, private or Indigenous protected areas.
A dedicated federal fund for conservation land purchase, leveraged with funding from the state and territory governments, philanthropy and corporate investment, is considered a critical means of achieving a comprehensive, adequate and representative protected area system. This is due to several factors:
- A dedicated fund allows governments the ability to act rapidly when suitable land comes onto the market;
- In some instances, purchase of properties of strategic importance from willing sellers may be the only way to ensure protection where those landholders are not interested in other protection mechanisms;
- A federally administered fund provides confidence and certainty for state agencies, non-profit organisations and Indigenous corporations to establish their own funding programs, including the ability to unlock larger, longer-term co-investments; and
- A leveraged model allows public investment to go further and for larger or more expensive properties to be purchased than otherwise would have been possible.