PARK WATCH Article March 2026 |

As political leaders continue to make decisions that undermine nature, a bold and hopeful movement determined to turn the tide is taking shape, reveal Matt Ruchel, Executive Director and Shannon Hurley, Nature Conservation Campaigner

A new long-term campaign is launching to defend and expand Victoria’s national parks. With a state election in November, an alliance of nature organisations, grassroots groups and community leaders is preparing to mobilise as never before.

VNPA is joining forces with fellow nature organisations to show that nature protection is mainstream, bipartisan and deeply Victorian. Together, we aim to defend our legacy and strengthen our protected areas for future generations.

To understand why this campaign is so urgently needed, let’s look at what has happened to our parks in just a few short years.

An alarming shift

Victoria’s national parks protect the very best of our state: from towering Mountain Ash forests to windswept coastal wetlands where migratory birds thrive. They’re places of beauty, refuge and memory, woven into the fabric of who we are as Victorians. Visitation is at record highs. People are seeking connection to nature in greater numbers than ever before.

Yet at the very moment nature needs us most, our state government is abandoning our protected areas and dismantling the independent voices that give Victorians a say.

Plans for long-promised park additions in the Central Highlands and East Gippsland have been abandoned. Parks Victoria has been put through destabilising reviews and restructures, with 145 staff moved to other authorities in 2023 and forecast budget cuts of at least $94 million. Staffing levels are at all-time lows. Park funding sits at less than half of one per cent of the state budget.

The Victorian Environmental Assessment Council is being abolished, along with the Victorian Marine and Coastal Council. Thirty-three Wildlife Officers from the Office of the Conservation Regulator have been sacked. Thirty-nine Fisheries Officers and hundreds of staff at the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action have been axed.

Meanwhile, an illegally created track network in Chiltern–Mt Pilot National Park was legalised rather than rehabilitated, and then announced by the Environment Minister over social media. Deer shooting has been allowed in Errinundra and Snowy River national parks, legitimising activity that was previously unlawful. Promised reforms to the Wildlife Act, including declaration of feral deer as a pest species and establishment of an independent regulator, have stalled. Logging loopholes remain open.

In 2023, Premier Daniel Andrews told Victorians: ‘The end of native forest logging will deliver the largest expansion to our public forests reserve system in the state’s history.’

By 2024, the message had shifted, with Premier Jacinta Allan declaring: ‘The government will not be creating any new national parks.’

The situation has worsened with the change in premier. The Opposition offers no comfort either, with the National Party promising to reinstate native forest logging if they win the election. The progressive crossbench (the Greens, Animal Justice and Legalise Cannabis Party) are working hard to give nature a voice. But we’re still sliding backward.   

Escalating our efforts

This is not the time to weaken protections or reduce oversight. It’s the time to strengthen them.

The threat is very real. If we want our national parks protected and expanded, funding restored, conservation returned to the core purpose of park management, to make sure native forest logging can never creep back through loopholes, and habitats across the state properly looked after, we need to escalate our efforts.

We’ve been working with fellow nature organisations to stick up for nature. It’s clear to us we must work together, urgently and strategically, to counter this assault on nature. This means:

  1. Uniting and activating all our networks.
  2. Building deeper relationships in our communities.
  3. Being highly visible to state MPs and election candidates across all parties.
  4. Using shared messages and coordinated tactics to demonstrate broad public support.
  5. And importantly, lifting up new voices in regional communities, tourism operators, health advocates, young people – to show that nature protection is mainstream. It’s bipartisan. It’s Victorian.

Victorians have always shown up when nature is under threat. Now it’s time to turn our deep love for nature into political power.

Look out for our next update on how you can get involved. Something exciting is coming!