Australia's Clearing-House Mechanism

Cross-cutting issue 4: Biological diversity and tourism

Australia supports the CBD's voluntary Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism Development, which can be used to support an existing mix of legislation, regulation and cooperative partnerships with tourism operators to protect Australia's biodiversity. Australian governments (national and state/territory do not distinguish between tourists and other classes of visitors in environmentally sensitive areas, which are subject to special quarantine regimes. Tourism involving threatened species is subject to assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

Australian Government

• Link to Tourism and Conservation Partnerships
• Kakadu National Park
• Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park
• Sustainable Tourism for Heritage Places
• Biodiversity Conservation and Ecotourism
• Tourism Australia
• Wet Tropics Management Authority, Managing Tourism
• Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
• Antarctic Tourism

State and territory governments

• Tourism New South Wales
• Tourism Victoria
• Tourism Queensland
• Tourism South Australia
• Tourism West Australia
• Tourism Northern Territory
• Tourism Tasmania

Research organisations

• Sustainable Tourism
• West Australia links to tourism research and statistics

Non-government organisations

• The Wilderness Society, Tourism in Natural Areas Policy

Industry organisations

• Not-for-profit National Body for the Ecotourism Industry
• Wildlife Tourism Australia