Conservation areas in Australia
Australia has a large number of conservation areas with the Australian National Reserve System (commonly abbreviated as NRS) being a system that makes up Australia's national parks and reserves, marine parks, and Indigenous Protected Areas managed cooperatively between the states and territories, maximising the protection of the natural treasures and beauty the country has to offer. Together, they make up 19 percent (as of 2022) of the continent, with more and more protection areas being created. Today, conservation areas on land make up 1,518,814.69 km2 (586,417.63 sq mi).
| Conservation areas in Australia topics: National parks • Marine parks • Indigenous Protected Areas State/territory national parks: NSW • NT • Qld • SA • Tas. • Vic. • WA |
Understand
Whilst Australia may not have the best national park system, the Australian National Reserve System however, is somewhat Australia's equivalent of the US National Park System, but instead the federal and state governments cooperating to protect as much as the country as possible. The system also conserves land on privately owned land, something that did not happen before the NRS was created.
There are three main types of protection areas that can be found nationwide:
- National parks
- Indigenous Protected Areas
- Marine parks
Each individual states and territories may also have their own system, however, unlike Canada, the types of conservation reserves can significantly differ. For example, South Australia has something called a "conservation park", but they are not found in New South Wales. Similarly, NSW has "state conservation areas" that Victoria does not have.