Quick questions on Management and conservation strategies: HSC Geography 2022 Focus Area

The IUCN protected area categories are the global standard:

Ecological restoration aims to return a degraded ecosystem toward a reference state. Major approaches:

Indigenous peoples have been actively managing Australian ecosystems for tens of thousands of years. Recognition of Indigenous land management as central to conservation has grown significantly in the last three decades.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992) is the parent treaty for global biodiversity governance. It has three objectives: conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of components, and fair sharing of benefits from genetic resources. Australia is a party.

Patch-burning by Traditional Owners produces a fine-grained mosaic of different fire histories, reduces fuel loads, encourages food plants and animals, and limits large-scale destructive fire. The West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (WALFA) project and similar Indigenous Ranger programs use traditional fire knowledge alongside contemporary monitoring tools (satellite imagery, GIS).

IPAs are areas of land and sea voluntarily declared and managed by Traditional Owners as part of the National Reserve System. There are over 80 declared IPAs in Australia, covering a very substantial share of the National Reserve System area. The IPA program supports Indigenous Ranger groups (the federal Working on Country and Indigenous Rangers programs) that combine traditional knowledge with contemporary conservation tools.

Some national parks (Uluru-Kata Tjuta, Kakadu, Booderee) are managed jointly between Traditional Owners and government agencies under formal agreements.

Distinguish between in-situ and ex-situ conservation, with one Australian example of each. [4 marks]

Explain the role of Indigenous Protected Areas in the Australian conservation system. [6 marks]

Evaluate the effectiveness of global agreements (Convention on Biological Diversity, Kunming-Montreal Framework) in conserving biodiversity at different scales. [8 marks]