Protect Our Parks Appeal

Victoria's national parks system is extraordinarily diverse. On land it includes fragile alpine heathlands, box-ironbark forests rich in wildlife, threatened woodland ecosystems and rare remnant grasslands.

Along our coasts are marine parks and sanctuaries brimming with ocean life, much of it found nowhere else on earth.

Parks and wild places are our only remaining source of genetic diversity of native plants and animals. They are also something every Victorian - and international visitors - can enjoy in their natural form.

These parks are the foundation of protecting our natural heritage, yet they are under constant threat, and need our protection.

We need your support to defend our parks from commercial tourism, cattle grazing, damage from feral animals, inappropriate recreation such as hunting and shooting, mineral prospecting as well as under-resourcing of rangers and maintenance staff to manage the parks and many more.

In Victoria right now the pressure has increased. The Victorian Government, has made series of moves which undermine and unpick decades of conservation initiatives, including:

• Attempted to throw open our Alpine National Park to private cattle graziers, this was fortunately blocked by the Federal Environment Minister
• Proposed a review to allow greater access for mineral prospecting in National Parks
• Proposed logging under the guise of ecological thinning in parks and reserves as part of the Timber Industry Strategy
• Begun amending the National Parks Act to allow firewood collection in our newly created and hard won red gum parks along the Murray River.
• Dropped the creation of the Murray River Reserve, which aimed to connect national parks along the river and return cattle grazing to these sensitive areas.
• Abolished all regulations and fees relating to firewood collection in state forests, a policy which has been in place since 1958. This means the fallen branches and debris so critical to healthy eco-system habitats will be stripped from our forests

Our parks deserve better.

We must put a stop to the unrelenting erosion of protection for our national parks and protected areas.

Our national parks are to conserve nature for the future. They're not cow paddocks, firewood depots, shooting galleries or places for tourist resorts or mining.