The Indigenous Protected Areas (IPA) program is one of the most successful collaborative conservation efforts in Australia. Indigenous communities manage and protect their traditional homelands, maintaining cultural practices and increasing and improving land management.
IPAs contribute to biodiversity conservation, habitat restoration, and other land uses, while empowering Indigenous peoples in land stewardship and economic opportunities. Through this program, traditional knowledge is integrated with modern conservation strategies, creating a unique approach to environmental protection.
In 2022, IPAs contributed 49.48 per cent of the NRS, covering 10.94 per cent of Australia’s land area.
With First Nations rights and interests established across 57 per cent of Australia under various tenures, IPAs will continue to make an integral contribution to meeting the 2030 targets and will be critical in protecting some of the largest intact landscapes across Australia including in some under-represented bioregions.
However, the continued growth and reach of IPAs – together with improvements to delivery – requires long-term funding solutions and more engaged government support structures. Central to this will be increasing the staffing capacity within government environment agencies to support the delivery of the program to address existing shortfalls and increasing capacity commensurate to the growth of the program towards 2030.
Recommendation
The Australian Government should rebuild government capacity and continue to support the creation of new Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) to meet Traditional Owner demand and aspirations and establish secure long-term funding for IPA management.
While IPAs are currently concentrated in Australia’s deserts and northern regions, there is increasing interest from First Nations groups where land tenure and current land use represent barriers to first nations ownership. By increasing land acquisition to enable return to First Nations ownership, IPA expansion combined with other approaches (such as Indigenous private protected areas and joint-managed national parks) will deliver better protection of under-represented ecosystems and bioregions.