Friends of the Earth FNQ supports Queensland Conservation's National Parks for Life campaign for better funding and a doubling of Queensland's protected areas.
'Well-managed national parks and private land reserves are our best chance to protect endangered wildlife, conserve nature for future generations and protect cultural values.
Queensland currently has only approximately 8.2% of land in protected areas, lower than any other state or territory in Australia.' explained Andrew Picone , Protected Areas Campaign Manager.
'More funding will enable the government to purchase areas of high conservation value and employ more land and sea rangers to help manage and protect these areas. Specifically we're asking for:
- Ongoing investment in Cape York to buy and return lands back to First Nations people with a further $10 million each year over four years;
- An increase in the annual funding for new national parks to $55 million over the next four years with a commensurate increase in management funding, and
An increase in annual funding to support the growth of private reserves to $24 million over the next four years.
This article was first published in The Kuranda Paper.