Parks

National Reserve System

Achievements - The NRS Program

Shark Bay, photo by Nick Rains
Shark Bay, WA
Photo: Nick Rains

Cane River, photo by Nick Rains
Cane River, WA
Photo: Nick Rains

The National Reserve System is Australia's network of protected areas, conserving examples of our natural landscapes and native plants and animals for future generations. The NRS goal is to make sure that examples of all our natural landscapes and the habitat they provide for out native plants and animals are conserved forever.

In the last decade, Australian Government funding has helped grow the protected area network by nearly 50 per cent. The National Reserve System now covers almost 90 million hectares - more than 11 per cent of the continent - or five times the size of Tasmania.

Since 1997, the NRS Program has invested $86 million to purchase 278 properties, adding 7.6 million hectares of important land to the protected area network.

This investment has leveraged more than $105 million from partners. Almost 5.4 million hectares of protected areas have been established with State and Territory Governments and 1.7 million hectares with conservation NGOs.

Indigenous landholders have added another 20 million hectares to the NRS under the Indigenous Protected Areas program.

Since 1997, the National Reserve System Program has improved biodiversity conservation in 50 of Australia's 85 bioregions.

Nowhere else in the world has a national Government joined with so many partners in a concerted strategy to conserve examples of all the country's important environments. Partnerships with government, conservation and community groups, and landholders continue to leverage financial and human resources to acquire new protected areas for the reserve system.

The NRS has proven to be extremely cost-effective - acquisition costs to the Australian Government are roughly $11 per hectare, compared with $250 per hectare for land repair projects, according to The National Reserve System Program - 2006 Evaluation.

A 2002 report prepared for the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, Setting Biodiversity Priorities  found that efforts to consolidate Australia's National Reserve System are among the most cost-effective investments that governments can make to secure the nation's biodiversity. Securing areas of land with high biodiversity values is seven times more cost-effective than investing in ecosystem repair.

NRS-NRSP-IPA Facts

1 March 2008
Measure NRS Program IPA Program Total - NRS & IPA Programs National Reserve System
(CAPAD 2006*)

Area protected (hectares)

7,884,989

20,204,933

28,089,922

89,528,859

Percent of Australia's land area*

1.03%

2.63%

3.65%

11.65%

Number of properties

280

24

304

9,011

Australian Government funds

$89,067,152

$20,745,000

$109,812,152

 

Leveraged partner funds

$105,406,875

 

 

 

Percent contribution to the NRS since 1997

13.2%

33.81%

47.01%

 

Percent growth of the NRS 1997-2006**

 

 

 

49.83%

* Area of Australia is 768,734,499 hectares based on IBRA
** in 1997 the NRS contained 5,645 protected areas covering 59,752,783 hectares