WWF Australia is campaigning for much more investment in Australia’s vital national parks system to help preserve countless animal species threatened with extinction.
WWF cites new figures showing investment in new national parks also helps boost crucial tourism-related revenue and employment in regional areas.
Dr Martin Taylor, WWF’s Protected Areas Policy Manager, said investment in the country’s national parks system should not be put on the back burner during tough economic times.
Dr Taylor’s research estimates a total of $14.5 billion was spent by nature-based tourists in 2006, while only $701.8 million was reinvested in building and maintaining the fundamental asset of nature based tourism - the National Parks system - in the same year.
“These figures underline just how important an economic asset our national parks system is just for tourism,” Dr Taylor said.
“If we could put figures on all the other benefits - saving wildlife, genetic resources, clean air and water - the estimates of value would be many more billions of dollars.”
Dr Taylor said more parks equated to more tourism revenue, more jobs for rangers and more jobs for the tourism industry.
“Parks are not luxuries to be short-changed in hard times,” he said.
“Using the current global economic climate as an excuse to stop funding the parks system and its rangers makes bad economic and bad environmental sense. Hard times are when we need to invest more in expanding parks and in well-resourced ranger jobs.
“The US and Australian governments both invested heavily in parks as an economic stimulus during the Great Depression – current colleagues should learn from their example.”
Tourism Research Australia, the business unit of Tourism Australia, estimates 3.4 million nature-based international tourists visited Australia in 2008, spending $20.2 billion. Of these, 65 per cent visited a national or state park during their stay.
Domestic holidaymakers also flocked to enjoy Australia’s wild nature, with 12.94 million domestic overnight nature-based tourists in 2008, spending $12 billion in the process.
A whopping 12.37 million domestic day-trippers also made a beeline for nature during 2008, spending $1.3 billion.
The most popular activity of all these visitors was visiting a national or state park and bushwalking or rainforest walking.
Further analysis more specific to national and state parks shows in 2007 there were 6.8 million domestic overnight visitors to a national or state park who spent $6.6 billion, while a further 6.1 million locals visited a national or state park for a day in 2007, spending $511 million while there.
“Parks are already paying for themselves and more,” Dr Taylor said.
“With climate change threatening to run roughshod over our tiny and fragile patchwork of parks, without increased investment there could be no wildlife left for tourists to come and see.”
*Definition: A nature –based tourist is a domestic or international visitor who participated in at least one of the following seven nature activities while travelling in Australia: (1) visit to a National Park or State Park, (2) visit to a botanical or other public garden, (3) bushwalking or rainforest walking, (4) visit wildlife parks, zoos or aquariums, (5) go whale or dolphin watching, (6) scuba diving or (7) snorkelling. (source: Tourism Research Australia)