Warul Kawa Indigenous Protected Area - fact sheet
Australian Government Department of the Environment and Water Resources, February 2007
© Commonwealth of Australia
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Extract from the fact sheet
Managed by the Torres Strait Island Coordinating Council, Warul Kawa Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) covers around 3,500 hectares (35 square kilometres) of vegetated dunes, rainforest and dense vine thickets. The IPA and the sea around it are important hunting and fishing grounds for the Traditional Owners, particularly the Boigu Island community.
Despite forming part of Australia's Protected Zone, the island and surrounding seas are visited by illegal fishermen, and also serve as a temporary refuge for passing sailors caught in stormy weather. IPA management is reducing the environmental impact of these, and other, visitors by constructing a small campsite and permanent water supply to limit the effects of unplanned camping and foraging on the wider landscape.
Warul Kawa also supports a variety of bird habitats and plants species not usually found on Torres Strait islands, including nesting mounds of the orange-footed scrub fowl and the rainforest plants Manilkara kauki, Diospyrus maritima and Aglaia eleagnoidea. IPA activities maintain the health of the island's ecosystems by removing shipping debris and other wastes washed up on the beaches, and by implementing sustainable hunting practices.
The declaration of Warul Kawa IPA in April 2001 was made under World Conservation Union (IUCN) Category VI - Managed Resource Protected Area: Protected Area managed mainly for the sustainable use of natural ecosystems.
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