Tourism and Biodiversity Conservation in Australian National Parks

Abstract

Australian biodiversity is facing many challenges, from weed invasion to global climate change, and the recent moves to ‘open up’ national parks to new activities and facilities could add to some very severe threats. While ecologically sustainable tourism in national parks has many benefits, it is feared by many that new developments are happening too fast and with inadequate research, monitoring programs and conservation planning. Too little is known about many of our species and ecosystems to be confident of ‘no impact,’ and there are insufficient plans for increasing our knowledge. Other recent events such as legislative changes and cuts to the funding of the sciences and national parks could compound this problem. There are however other potential means of assisting the tourism industry in natural and semi-natural areas, as well as ways of reducing the expense of necessary research, and these are not currently being sufficiently explored.