Territorians love their Parks. These Parks are diverse and unique landscapes. They provide protection to flora and fauna, form the cornerstone of conservation for some of the Territory’s most ecologically important waterholes and ecosystems, and are living cultural landscapes home to Aboriginal cultural sites and places of historic heritage. Parks are a gateway for Territorians to connect with nature, wildlife and cultural values. Parks are key to the Northern Territory’s identity. 

The Government is developing the Northern Territory Parks 2022-2052 Masterplan set to provide direction for the management of our parks for the next 30 years. Feedback is open to the public to help shape the draft masterplan, and ALEC will also be making a submission.  Submissions are due 15th October.

Briefing and submission workshop

We want to support our members to write their own submission, to demonstrate to the Territory Government the types of changes that are wanted and needed. We’ll provide a background briefing on the Masterplan, followed by a submission writing workshop and Q&A.  

Workshop: Tuesday 5 October | 5:15PM | ALEC temporary office 8/74 Todd St (behind Loco Burrito) | RSVP

NT Parks Masterplan: risks and opportunities

The Parks Masterplan represents a major opportunity to shape the future of our Parks.  It could also lead to cost-cutting, and a reduction in the administration and management responsibilities of some Parks by Government. 

ALEC holds concerns about the structure and framing of the Masterplan and the sidelining of some very important issues, including:

• Biodiversity and conservation: Parks protect biological diversity, and provide a home for our native plants and animals. The threat of wildlife extinction is real. Parks are protected areas yet their essential role in biodiversity conservation is only a small focus of the Masterplan;
• Economic values: A priority of the plan is “activating businesses and economic opportunities” within Parks. This plan places significant emphasis on tourism and substantially less on maintaining and protecting ecological values. 
• Consolidation: The plan flags the consolidation Parks in the NT. It is unclear what areas they are considering could be better managed by other stakeholders. Consolidation of Parks, could result in Parks offloading responsibility of public assets; 
• Identifying threats: The Masterplan does not consider key threats to our Parks i.e. weeds, feral animals, fire, mismanagement. 

The Masterplan is filled with many leading questions, such as:

• “Do you think the concept of privately owned national parks should be explored?”,
• “What parks and reserves fail to add value to the Territory?” and “Could certain parks be turned over to other purposes…?”
• “Are Territory parks and reserves still expected to be the cornerstone of our biodiversity conservation efforts…?”

We want to hear from you

The Masterplan could result in some of the greatest changes to Parks we’ve seen in decades. ALEC wants to hear from our members about their priorities for Parks. Your feedback will help us to write our submission to Government.  Take the survey.