An independent audit by WWF-Australia has praised efforts to build the National Reserve System as 'arguably the Australian Government's biggest conservation success story'.


The WWF report, Building Nature's Safety Net, describes the National Reserve System as 'excellent value for money' - costing an average of only $47 a hectare to buy wildlife habitat and protect it forever through the National Reserve System, or just $5 a hectare to support the declaration and management of Indigenous Protected Areas.


Every dollar of taxpayer's money leverages an average of $4.55 of additional funding from partners in purchase or ongoing management investment.

 

The recent boost of $180 million to the Australian Government's investment in the National Reserve System (NRS) has helped leverage nearly five times that amount from other sources including state governments and private land holders.

 

Queensland was the state with the largest gap for inclusion of poorly protected ecosystems, and remains the top priority state for strategic growth of
Australia’s NRS.


Tasmania ranked highly for protection of ecosystems, but had the largest relative gap for the protection of distributions of nationally threatened species.

 

The report can be accessed at http://wwf.org.au/publications/buildingnaturessafetynet2011/