Australian Alps Strategic Plan 2008-11

## 1. Background

The co-ordinated management, protection and conservation of the Australian Alps national parks for all Australians, present and future, is the subject of an agreement (a Memorandum of Understanding) between the Commonwealth, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victorian Governments. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in relation to the Co-operative Management Program was originally signed by parties in 1986 and revised in 1989, 1996, 1998 and 2003. See full text of the MOU at http://www.australianalps.environment.gov.au/publications/mou/index.html The Australian Alps, a mountainous biogeographical region in a predominantly dry and flat continent, contain Australia's highest peaks and unique alpine and subalpine ecosystems; they stretch southwards from Canberra through the Brindabella Range in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales (NSW) and along the Great Dividing Range through Victoria. The Australian Alps contain plants and animals found nowhere else in the world, and contain significant landscapes, and Aboriginal and historic places. They are a highly-valued recreational resource for many Australians, and are the headwaters of some of Australia's most important rivers and streams, supplying snowmelt waters for the maintenance of ecological processes and communities, domestic use, industry, irrigation and hydro-electric production in NSW, Victoria, ACT and South Australia. The Australian Alps Liaison Committee (AALC) co-ordinates projects that encourage the consistent and co-operative management of the Australian Alps national parks. The Program enhances the ability of member agencies to meet their roles and responsibilities in managing the parks and reserves in alpine and sub-alpine regions of mainland Australia.

####### A fresh approach

This strategic plan is based on priority issues (Section 4), which give rise to a number of Key Result Areas (KRAs) (Section 5). The outcomes and strategies for the KRAs provide the framework for a program that will contribute to agency goals in relation to the co-operative management of the Australian Alps national parks and their individual elements. The agencies have developed this Strategic Plan together, and have agreed to implement it, co-ordinated by the Australian Alps Liaison Committee, as individual agency resources and priorities permit. Since the last Strategic Plan, there have been a number of changes affecting the Alps and the management of the Program, and this plan responds strategically to those changes. They include increased knowledge and certainty about climate change and the impacts that it will have on Alps ecosystems; a more coherent approach desirable for the Alps landscapes as a whole; the need to expand awareness of the Alps landscapes and the Alps Co-operative Program to a wider audience; increasing risks to ecosystems posed by invasion by pest plant and animal species; recognition that recovery from the 2003 bushfires is now well under way and no longer needs the high level of co-ordination provided by the previous plan; and a diminishing capacity of working group members to devote the amount of time they have in the past to Program projects.

## 2. A Vision for the Australian Alps

The Australian Alps national parks Co-operative Management Program Vision Statement, as described in the MOU is:

Agencies working in partnership to achieve excellence in conservation management of the Australian Alps national parks’ natural and cultural values and sustainable use through an active program of cross border co-operation.

A positioning statement for the Australian Alps was developed at the celebration of the 21st anniversary of the Alps MOU at Thredbo in June 2007, the essence of which is that people envisaged:

########## A healthy alpine landscape that inspires the human spirit and protects natural and cultural values.

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