Evolution of the system of protected areas in Western Australia

Abstract

The Western Australian system of protected areas (PAs) covers more than 15 million ha and is the second largest conservation estate of the Australian continent. An analysis of the history of the creation of PAs in Western Australia shows that the concept of nature conservation through reserves was slow to emerge. During the early decades of the century, reserves were mainly created for their recreation values. The lack of governmental interest in nature conservation led to a belated development of reserve coverage up to the 1950s, while vast areas of land were opened to farming and pastoralism. Following two scientifically-based reviews of the PA system, the number and coverage of PAs increased dramatically up to the late 1970s. The rationalization of the vesting and managerial responsibilities for PAs was only finalized in the 1980s. Since then, there has not been any large increase in PA area but a consolidation of the PA coverage. The development of the system of PAs has been impeded by the belated response of Western Australian governments to conservation concerns and a 'worthless' land approach to conservation as a land use. While large-scale land alienation for agriculture has now stopped, other types of land uses such as mining and other aspirations over land management and vesting, such as Aboriginal land claims and forestry are now constraining any large expansion of the PA system. Only an approach embracing the whole landscape can overcome the political and social limitations of the concept of PAs and the further degradation of developed land in Western Australia.

Relationships among soil fertility, native plant diversity and exotic plant abundance inform restoration of forb‐rich eucalypt woodlands

“…They included nature reserves and town reserves gazetted from 1883 to 1963 and woodlands on private land, which to our knowledge had never been cultivated or fertilized. To avoid interactions with recent anthropogenic disturbances, all sites had been ungrazed by livestock for at least 40 years, but most were intermittently grazed by livestock in the early 20th century (Main, 1992; Pouliquen‐Young, 1997). Sites were open to grazing by native and feral animals (mainly kangaroos and rabbits) and are likely to have varied in long‐term fire history.…”

Resource heterogeneity and persistence of exotic annuals in long-ungrazed Mediterranean-climate woodlands

“…Nevertheless the native understorey in these sites is overlain by patchilydistributed exotic annuals, and this mosaic formed the basis of our sampling strategy. To avoid interactions with recent livestock grazing, all sites had been ungrazed for at least 40 years, but most had a history of irregular livestock grazing in the early 1900s (Main 1992;Pouliquen-Young 1997), which may have been the original cause of persistent weed patches. Sites are likely to have varied in fire history but it was only possible to ascertain where recent fires had occurred.…”

Economic, social and biological attributes of two marine reserves within New Zealand

“…However, despite the importance of MRs to people, not all of these values are widely estimated. Generally, a standard economic approach considers only tangibles values; however, because MRs are no-take areas, the majority of values are related to non-tangible values, which are equally important in environmental assessments (Pouliquen-Young, 1997;Farber et al, 2006;Hearnshaw et al, 2010). A useful way to include and consider both tangible and non-tangible benefits of MRs is by using an ecosystem services approach (Costanza et al, 1997), such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) (MEA, 2005;Hearnshaw et al, 2010).…”