Third South Pacific Natiohal Parks & Reserves Conference
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X ffi tI + I) )' THIRD SOUTH PACIFIC NATIOHAL PARKS & RESERVES CONFERENCE CONFERENGE REFORT - VOLUME 3 COUNTRY HEVIEWS x @,Copyrig,ht South Pacifio GonrmisslEn; 1 986, Atlrightsresened. No partotthispublicallon maybe repr,oduced in anyformorbyany pr'og€8s, whether for sale, profi[ mat€rlal gain, or frue dlstrlbution bltnout wittten pembelon. lneFd,tlos $rould be'di:rocted to the pubtishGr. Origlnaltext Engllsh. Pi€psrgrt for publicrtion at Sorith Paclflc Gofimiadon headguarterai Nournea; Ngw Gatedonla and printed at Universal Prlnt, t&AO i!,orne Stieet, Wdlingtcini lrlew E@lgnd, "Flep-ri'ntBd July 1 987" REPORT OF THE THIRD SOUTH PACIFIC NATIONAL PARKS AND RESERVES CONFERENCE HELD IN APIA, WESTERN SAMOA, 1985 VOLUME III COUNTRY REVIEIT/S 1. FOREWORI) The ThLrd South Paciflc Natlonal" Parks and Reserves Conference was held ln Apla, Western Sanoa, 24 - 3 July 1985 and as lcs title luplles it was the thlrd ln a serl€s rof regular meetLngs of Paclfic countrles on the issues of protected areas and coneervatlon. The earl.ler conferences were held ln New Zealand and Australia l-n 1975 and 1979 respectlvely. The prlnclpal obJectlve of the Conference r/as to pronoEe the conservation of nature ln the South PacLfic Region by raislng awareness of its lnpor- tance and by encouraglng governments to protect and manage both their terrestrial and narine ecosystems. The theme of tradltlonal conservatlon knowledge and practlces was central to the Conference. Other thernes covered lncLuded legal, admlnlstrattve and regJ.onal issues; marlne and coastal issues; training and tourlsm and resource and park management. The Conference was organlsed by the South Paclflc Regional Envlronment Programe (SPREP) of the South Paciflc Comlsslon (SpC) in conJunctlon with the Governmeot of Western Samoa, and the International Unlon for the Consenratl.on of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). The Conference couprLsed two main sesslons: (1) A slx day Technl-cal SessLon at whlch Country Revlew, Key Iseue and Case Study papers were presented, a draft Actlon Strategy for Protected Areas ln the Paelflc Region prepared and resolutions formulated for review and adoption by the subsequent Ministerial SessLon; (11) A three day MlnleterLal Session at whlch 'resolutlons and the draft Actlon Strategy ltere conaldered and adopted, the Conventi.on on Nature Conservation for the South Paclflc dlscussed, and con'mltuents by countries to protected areas and nature conservatLon were qnde. A one week traLnJ-ng course l-n protected area nanagement followed the Conference, Papers for the Conference fel1 into three maln categorles: Key Issue papers' Case Studlee aod Country Revlens. Key Iesue papers generally Lntroduced a Conference theme and covered subJects of reglonal relevance, L.e. of relevance to alL countrles, whlle Case Studles documented a speclflc Lsgue or approach to an iesue under a Conference Eheme. Country T I Reviews recorded the eurrent state of protected area nanagement ln each of the partl.clpatlng countries. I The range of toplcs covered at the Conference was wLde and reflected the very divetse backgrounds of the Conference partlclpants. Although the papers hlghltghted the Dany difflculties faclng those responslble for Protected area management and resource conservatLon Ln the region, there was alao heartening evldeace that desptte these dlfftculties, slgniflcant Progreas Ls beLng nade by nany countrles ln theee areaa. There waa also evl-dence of a growlng anareness throughout the reglon of the need for envlronmental protectlon and conservatt-on mea€lures lf Ehe lsland countrles are to achleve a susfal-nable standard of llving. In thte respect strong enphaele waa placed 6n the important role of conservatlon educatl.ou and trainlng. Thle rePort ls Volume III of four volunes which comprise the full Conference report. It contalns all sixteen of the Country Revlew papers whlch were presented at the Conference. In rnoet cases these confom to a set foruat conslstl-ng of two parts. Part I ls a General Report lntroduclng 11. the country, lts geography and lts legal and admLnletrative system as these relate to eonservation and protected area management. Al-so incLu.red are cornprehenslve Llsts of protected, and proposed protected areas together wlth coments on the problems, needs and prospects faclng protected area management and conservaElon, ParC II constets of Infornatlon Sheets on Protected Areas whlch provLde specLflc data on the tenure and status of each area, Lts phyalcal and blological features, retated reference nateriaL and nanagement and regearch provlglons. Thle volune, and volume 2 containlng the collected key lssue and case study papers therefore represent the flrst comprehenslve publlcatlone on protected area€, and related iseuee la the South Paclflc reglon. As such they are valuable aource reference material and a basie on wtrLch to gauge progress tn the flelds of protected area management and reaource conservatlon ln the four yeara before the fourth Couference in 1989. The Volumee cornprlslng the full Conference Report are: Volume I. Sumary Record of Conference Proceedlngs Volume 2. CoLlected Revlews, Key Iesl€ and Case Study Papers Volume 3. Country Revlers Volume 4. Report on Conference Arrangements. Addltlonal- publlcations arl-slng from the Conference are the AcElon Strategy for Protected Areas in the South Paclflc RegLon and a Trainlng Manual for Protected Area Management ln the South PacLflc. A11 publlcatLons are avaLlable from the: South Paclflc Regl.onal Environment Prograrrnre (SPREP) South PacLflc CotmtissLon B.P. D5 Noumea New Caledonlr. Volumes 2 and 3 have been edl.ted by Mr P.E.J. Thornas for the South Paclfic Reglonal Envlronrnent Progranme. Noumea February 1986. LIST OF COI'ilTR.IES Pages 1. AUSTRAIIA I s9 2. COOK ISLAI{DS 50 75 3. FIJI 76 92 4. GUAII (Terrl.tory of ) 93 r14 5. KIRIBATI (Republtc of) 115 L24 6. NEII CALEDONIA 125 133 7 NET{ ZEALA}II) L34 158 ; . 8, NORTEERN }TARIANA ISLN{DS (Comonwealth of rhe) 159 161 t 9. PALIIU t62 L74 [0. PAPUA NEW GUTNEA L75 194 11. SOLOI'iON ISInilDS 195 209 L2. TOKEI,AU 210 13. TONGA (Ktngdon of) 211 2L6 14. VAI{UAIU 2L7 228 [5. I{ALLIS AI{D F-UTTINA 229 231 16. I{ESTERX SATTOA 232 269 a T t i ,I 1. AUSTRALIA This Revlew Ls jn two parts. The flrst part, the general revtew, lncludes lnformatlon whlch ls readily avaitable (publlshed) al-ong wlth addltlonal infornatlon fomarded by the varlous State/Terrttory Governments speclfi- cally for lnclusion in this report. The second part, infornatlon sheets on protlcted areas, lncludes examples of nature conservation reserves from each State and Territory. In the long term it is hoped that the dl-fferent State/Terrl-tory govefnments will contlnue to complle informatlon on thel-r protected areas. PARTI-GEMRALREPORT The flrst slx polnts of this rePort; Introductlon, Policy, Law, Parks and Reserves AdrnLnlstratlon, Addresses, and Llst of Protected Areas are covered by the appended Lnformatlon from the AustralLan National Parks and Wildltfe Slrvice (ANPI"IS) Oecasional Paper No. l0 Nature Conservatlon Reserves in Austral!.a (I984), [Wilson, J.L. (ed), 1984]. Additlonal lnformatlon has been listed under the varlous poLnts. Australl.a ls a large island contlnent coverlng alnost 770 nttlion hectares. Of thls area nearly 47" or nearly 30 ntl-llon hectares ls reserved for nature conservatLon as of 30 June 1984. The population of Australla ls approxi- nately 15.5 nll-l-Lon people, most of whom are situated in the south-east part of the country. Australia has a federal system of governnent and, as well as the Comon- realth Governnent, there are slx State and two Terrlt.orlal Governments (excludlng external terrltories). The Australlan Constitutlon gives prfunary responslblllty for land management to the States and Terrltorles and so the naJ-rtty of our national parks and other reserves have been proclaLmed under State or Territory legislatlon. There exist between the States dlfferences ln Government responsibtlities for publlc land rurnagement. Each government has lts otrn agency or agencies which are resPonslble for nature con6ervatlon and nouenclature and nanagement practices vary from State to State. Development of coftmon polLcles occurs nainly through meetlngs of the Councll of Nature Conservatlon Mlnisters (CONCOM), lts Standlng Conrmlttee and Worklng Groups. INTRODUCTION Refer to Appendix I Pp 9 - 12. AddltLonal infonnation on Australia's PopulatLon (000rs at June 1984*) Ls as folLows: STATE TERRITORY Australlan CapLtal TerritorY A.C.T. 245.6 New South Wales N.S.W. 5,405. I Northern Terrltory N.T. 138 .9 Queensland Q1d 2,505 . I South Australla S.A. 1 ,353 .0 Tasmanla Tas 437 ,3 Vlctorla Vic 4,075.9 I{estern Australla I^I.A. 1 ,382 .6 Total AustralLa 15 ,543 . 6 Australlan Bureau of Statisfl-cs 2. POLICY Refer to Appendtx I pp 13 - 23. LAW A. EXISTING LEGISI^ATION Refer to Appendix I pp 13 - 23. B. TRADITIONAL CUSTOMS A}ID PRACTICES Documentation of Australian Aborlglnal tradLtlons of relevance to conservatLon is sttll in its infancy, although some traditLonal practLces are belng pursued by soDe State/Terrltory and Conmonwealth agencies. The Australlan envlronment is extremely dlverse, wlth a continum from troplcal ralnforest to aLpine and arld blones acrosa the contlnent. Culturally there were orLglnally sone 500 trlbal groups lnhabltl.ng the nalnland and Tasnanl.a (Tlndale I974). Unfortunately many of the tradltLonal practlces of relevance to conservatlon have been lost due to attrltlon of Aborlglnal cultures Ln all but the remotest areas. It Ls almost lnposslble to conclsely document, tradltlonal practlces rel-evant to conservatlon ln AustralLa, because such relatLonshlps with the envlronuent tend to operate at the ecosystem leveI, Nevertheless, several developments ln the LncorporatLon of tradltlonal knowledge, expertlse and authority ln conservatlon management are worth nothingl (1) Researchers have generall-sed that the tradltlonal use of fire as an extenslve range management tool has heavlly influenced the naJority of Australl,an plant connnunltles.