Victorians deserve to have parks your grandchildren will be proud of.

Right now, less than 0.5 per cent of state spending is used to protect your national parks. That’s simply not enough. For feral animal and weed control, inappropriate commercial development in national parks and rangers.

Your parks and reserves need and deserve at least 1 per cent to maintain and protect them.

Will you donate today to push the Victorian Government to up the budget for our parks?

Demand 1% for Parks – Donate today

To give you a comparison, state health expenditure is about 28 per cent. Spending on education is about 24 per cent. When you look at what healthy parks give back, 1 per cent is not a lot:

  • Clean water. Over a million hectares of water supply catchments are located within Victoria’s National Parks.
  • Precious animals and plants are protected. Victoria’s parks network is home to 91.9 per cent of Victoria’s native plant species and 78.4 per cent of its animal species.
  • Crops are pollinated. Pollination services provided by Victoria’s parks have been valued at more than $123 million.
  • Parks help fight climate change. The Victorian parks network is a major carbon sink, with at least 270 million tonnes of carbon stored in land-based parks and 850,000 tonnes in marine parks.
  • Parks protect our coasts. Around 70 per cent of Victoria’s coast is managed as part of the parks system. These areas protect against storm damage, flooding and erosion, and reduce economic loss of coastal assets.
  • Parks tourism creates jobs. The 50 million visits to national, state and metropolitan parks see tourists spending $2.1 billion per year, and generates 20,000 jobs. Of course, this must be managed carefully.

Maybe you’ve been to a national park and found overflowing rubbish bins and damaged facilities. Or tracks smothered by invasive weeds. Riverbanks damaged by deer or pigs, signage damaged, or pollution on our beaches.

Instead of weeds and feral animals, imagine picnic areas that are well-maintained, serviced and sensitive to nature. Imagine decent visitor centres, plentiful and accurate signage, well-planned and maintained trails and tracks. Rangers around when you need them.

Quite frankly, managing 18 per cent of Victoria and around 5 per cent of our marine waters with less than half a per cent of the state’s expenditure is a joke.

National parks should be looked after by a well-resourced team of the very best scientists and land managers.

Demand 1 per cent for parks – Donate today

Please make your gift today to power our campaign for 1 per cent of the state budget to properly protect parks.

It’s what your great natural heritage needs – and deserves.