Recommendations: Reforming management planning for national parks, conservation parks and nature reserves in Western Australia – 2010 and onwards. Report prepared for the Conservation Commission of Western Australia

摘要

This report makes recommendations to the Conservation Commission of Western Australia regarding management planning for terrestrial conservation reserves in Western Australia. It provides ways of improving both the quality of the planning process and usefulness of the product. The report is the last of three2 prepared as part of a review of management planning commissioned by the Conservation Commission and undertaken by researchers at the School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University.ududThe aim of the commissioned review was to:udFinalise the development of a framework for producing good quality management plans that relate to a regional planning area, are concise and can be implemented, and where the framework emphasises both the planning process and product. ududThis review focused on planning for terrestrial conservation reserves (given these fall within the jurisdiction of the Conservation Commission) but with cognizance that planning for marine reserves is also undertaken by DEC. It has included: (1) web-based investigation of planning practices elsewhere; (2) interviews with key plannng staff from the Queensland Environmental Protection Authority, New South Wales Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, and Parks Victoria; (3) interviews with 36 staff from DEC; (4) discussions of the recommendations in this last report with senior staff in DEC and the Conservation Commission; and (5) peer review of this report by R.W. (Bill) Carter, Associate Professor of Heritage Resource Management at the Sunshine Coast University, Queensland. ududThe review was commissioned because of widespread concerns regarding the time taken to prepare management plans and that only one fifth (20.4%) of DEC’s estate is covered by these plans.3 Similar concerns exist in other jurisdictions, as shown by reviews of management planning recently completed in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.