Local, regional, national and internatio

Local, regional, national and international significance

As well as being important to Bininj, Kakadu is a special and important place to many other people.

How Kakadu is significant locally

To Bininj, Kakadu is of particular importance as it is their home and they have important cultural obligations to look after country. Many Bininj consider that they cannot or should not move to other places to live or work. The Park is their traditional homeland and it is important to them that they are able to look after their country and culture and make sure that visitors to their country are safe. Many other people also enjoy the benefits that come from living in the Park. For many residents in Jabiru and the Kakadu region, Kakadu is not only a place to live and work, it is also a place for recreation and a place where they can appreciate and learn about the Park’s natural and cultural heritage.

How Kakadu is significant regionally

Conservation: The Park is both representative and unique. It is representative of the ecosystems of a vast area of northern Australia. It is unique because it incorporates one drainage basin (the South Alligator River) and all of the major habitat types of the Top End. It is where the Arnhem Land plateau meets the Alligator Rivers floodplains and the southern hills and basins (see Figure 4, Landforms of Kakadu).

A number of plant and animal species that occur in Kakadu do not occur in any other national park. Kakadu is important as a wildlife conservation area for the region because it is a large area managed as a national park, whereas other areas of Top End habitats are managed primarily for other purposes such as agriculture, pastoralism, mining, rural development or defence force use, or are not being actively managed for habitat conservation.

It is essential for regional conservation that traditional owners of Kakadu, Nitmiluk, Gurig, Arnhem Land and other areas in the region, Park staff and external specialists share their knowledge of country and, where needed, carry out cooperative land management and conservation programs. This requires cooperative arrangements between Parks Australia,

Figure 3 – Aboriginal land and land claims in Kakadu National Park

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Northern Territory Government agencies, Aboriginal organisations and other organisations. Regional conservation initiatives are a key component of this Plan.

Regional economy: Tourism is very important to the regional economy, particularly in terms of employment. For the financial year 2004–05, the Northern Territory Tourist Commission reported that the direct value of tourism to the Territory was $1.5 billion, generated from over 1.4 million visitors. Of all visitors to the Northern Territory, 82 per cent visited for pleasure and most report they visit to take advantage of attractions such as those provided by Kakadu. In 2004/05, Kakadu National Park attracted 165,300 visitors . It is estimated that tourism in Kakadu directly contributed $58.1 million to the Northern Territory economy in 2004-05 (Tremblay 2005). In addition to its significant contribution via the tourism market, the Park purchases significant quantities of goods and services from regional suppliers. Further analyses of the economic significance of the Park are being developed, including the economic value of the environmental services that the Park provides.

It is important to the Northern Territory Government that tourism development in the Park complements its tourism marketing strategies and plans for regional tourism development.

Recreation: Many people from Darwin, Katherine and Pine Creek use the Park for recreation. They undertake many recreational activities in the Park with fishing, camping, bushwalking and visiting with relatives and friends being some of the most popular activities. Kakadu offers recreational opportunities that complement those offered in the other parks, reserves and attractions in the region, such as the proposed Mary River National Park, Nitmiluk, Litchfield and Gurig national parks, Fogg Dam, Window on the Wetlands and the Territory Wildlife Park.

How Kakadu is significant nationally

Conservation: Nearly 1600 plant species have been recorded in Kakadu, including about 17 species considered rare or threatened. Kakadu contains 271 bird species, which is over one third of Australia’s bird fauna, and 77 mammal species, about one quarter of Australia’s land mammals; 132 species of reptiles and 27 species of frogs are located within Kakadu and over 246 species of fish have been recorded in tidal and freshwater areas within the Park. The region is the most species-rich in freshwater fish in Australia. Unlike many other areas of Australia, Kakadu still has nearly all the plant and animal species that are thought to have been present in the area 200 years ago. Additional species new to western science have also been discovered in the Park since its inscription, including the freshwater tongue sole, the giant cave gecko and an undescribed species of Acacia.

In 1980, the significance of the Alligator Rivers Region to the nation was recognised by its entry on the Register of the National Estate under the Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975 because of its natural and cultural heritage. In 1986, 575 ha at Jarrangbarnmi (Koolpin Gorge) was placed on the register because the endemic species Eucalyptus koolpinensis is found there. The southern third of the Park was placed on the register in 1989. The EPBC Act has replaced the Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975 with new heritage protection provisions but the Register of the National Estate continues under the Australian Heritage Council Act 2003. The EPBC Act requires the Minister for the Environment and Heritage to have regard to information in the Register of the National Estate when making decisions under the Act.

At the time of preparing this Plan, Kakadu and some sites in the Park that are on the Register of the National Estate are ‘indicative places’ for the purposes of potential inclusion in either the National Heritage List or Commonwealth Heritage List under the EPBC Act.

The national park status and effective conservation management of Kakadu contribute significantly towards meeting the objectives of a number of Australian national conservation strategies. These include the following:

• National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia’s Biological Diversity and the National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development. Kakadu is Australia’s largest national park, contributing to the objectives in these strategies of having a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of protected areas. The management measures carried out in Kakadu contribute strongly to the objectives of the National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia’s Biological Diversity by conserving biological diversity in situ, integrating biological diversity conservation and natural resource management, managing threatening processes, improving knowledge of biological diversity and involving the community in biodiversity conservation.

 National Forest Policy Statement. Substantial areas of a number of types of tropical forest, as well as large tracts of savanna woodland, are conserved in Kakadu, contributing to the objective of having a comprehensive, adequate and representative network of dedicated and secure nature conservation reserves for forest ecosystems.

 National Reserve System. The National Reserve System represents the collective efforts of the states, territories, the Australian Government, non-government organisations and Indigenous landholders to achieve an Australian system of terrestrial protected areas as a major contribution to the conservation of our native biodiversity.

Kakadu makes a significant contribution to the National Reserve System, which aims to contain samples of all regional ecosystems across Australia, their constituent biota and associated conservation values, in accordance with the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia. Kakadu spans two biogeographic regions—Arnhem Plateau and Pine Creek. The Arnhem Plateau biogeographic region encompasses the Territory’s most important area for biodiversity with very high levels of endemism and extraordinary richness of many groups of flora and fauna. About 20 per cent is within reserves, Kakadu accounting for most of this. The Pine Creek biogeographic region is the most extensively reserved of the Territory bioregions, with 43 per cent in reserves, most of which is in Kakadu. These are amongst the highest levels of protection in the country (Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts 2005).

 Wetlands Policy of the Commonwealth Government of Australia. Kakadu conserves almost all the catchment of the South Alligator River as well as large areas of wetlands, contributing to all objectives of the Wetlands Policy, particularly the objective of managing wetlands in an ecologically sustainable way and within a framework of integrated catchment management. A guiding principle of the Wetlands Policy is recognition of the importance of the knowledge and practices of Indigenous people in relation to wetlands and promotion of a cooperative approach to wetland management and conservation with Indigenous Australians. The joint management arrangements in Kakadu are consistent with this guiding principle.

National economy: Tourism is the fastest growing export industry in Australia and is actively promoted by governments at all levels. Along with other places of natural beauty in Australia such as Uluru–Kata Tjuta National Park and the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu has become a major tourism attraction for overseas visitors.

Joint management: The management arrangements in the Park between Bininj and Parks Australia continue to be cited as an example of an innovative and effective cooperative management arrangement. The joint management of Kakadu has led to international praise for Australia, the Australian Government and the joint management partners.

Protected area and land management authorities and groups of Indigenous people interested in joint management from within Australia and overseas regularly visit the Park.

How Kakadu is significant internationally

Kakadu is inscribed on the World Heritage List under the World Heritage Convention for its outstanding natural and cultural values. Stage One of the Park was inscribed on the list in 1981 and Stage Two in 1987. The whole of the Park was listed in December 1992. Kakadu is one of the few sites that are listed under the World Heritage Convention for both cultural and natural values. At the time of preparing this Plan, Kakadu is one of only 23 World Heritage sites listed for both its natural and cultural heritage. Appendix B to this Plan summarises the World Heritage criteria and attributes of Kakadu.

Large areas of Kakadu are listed as wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. Stage One was included on the list in 1980. Wetlands in Stage Two were included in September 1987. In 1996, wetlands in Stage Three that are part of the South Alligator River catchment were added to the list. Some 683 000 ha of Kakadu are included in the Ramsar list. Appendix F to this Plan contains the Ramsar information sheet for the Park.

In March 1996, the parties to the Ramsar Convention agreed to establish an East Asian–Australasian Flyway to protect areas used by migratory shorebirds. The Flyway provides for an East Asian–Australasian shorebird reserve network of sites that are critically important to migratory shorebirds. The wetlands of Kakadu National Park are part of this reserve network.

Numerous migratory species that occur in Kakadu are protected under international agreements such as the Bonn Convention for conserving migratory species, and Australia’s migratory bird protection agreements with China (CAMBA) and Japan (JAMBA). Thirty-nine of the species listed under the Bonn Convention are found in Kakadu, as are 52 of the 81 birds listed under CAMBA and 49 of the 110 birds listed under JAMBA. Appendix E to this Plan lists the migratory species that occur in the Park.

Kakadu is part of a Tri-National Wetlands Conservation Project which operates under an agreement between the Director of National Parks and the management authorities of Wasur National Park in Irian Jaya and Tonda Wildlife Management Area in Papua New Guinea. The project aims to develop a cooperative arrangement between the three areas to share experiences in wetland conservation, promote best management options and develop local management capacity. Wetlands in the three protected areas each form a significant stop-over point for birds on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway.