Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00002:front:0:p18
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00002
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Character Range: 48802–51712

and is actively encouraged and promoted nationally and internationally by government agencies and tourism industry stakeholders. Along with other places of natural beauty and cultural significance in Australia, such as Uluru–Kata Tjuta National Park and the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu is a major tourism attraction for domestic and overseas visitors.

Joint management
The management arrangements in the park between Bininj/Mungguy and the Director of National Parks continue to be cited as an example of an innovative cooperative management arrangement. Protected area and land management authorities and groups of Indigenous people interested in joint management from within Australia and overseas regularly visit the park, and the model of joint management used in Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Parks has been a blueprint for joint management more broadly.
How Kakadu is significant internationally

Kakadu is inscribed on the World Heritage List under the World Heritage Convention for its outstanding natural and cultural values. These values are described in the Retrospective Statement of Outstanding Universal Value (UNESCO 2014). Stage One of the park was inscribed on the list in 1981 and Stage Two in 1987. The whole of the park was listed in December 1992. In recognition of its outstanding natural and cultural values, the Koongarra area was added to the Kakadu World Heritage Area by the World Heritage Committee on 27 June 2011. As of 2013 Kakadu was one of only 29 World Heritage sites listed internationally for both natural and cultural heritage.

Appendix A: summarises the World Heritage criteria and attributes of Kakadu.

As a listed World Heritage site Kakadu is recognised internationally for its rock art and archaeological sites which record a living cultural tradition that continues today.

The archaeological sites and rock art sites within the park exhibit great diversity, both in space and through time, yet embody a continuous cultural development. These sites are recognised internationally as preserving a record, not only in the form of archaeological sites but also through rock art, of human responses and adaptation to major environmental change including rising sea levels. Kakadu also contains archaeological sites which are currently some of the oldest dated within Australia.

Kakadu is also listed as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. The park was previously listed as two separate Ramsar sites. These were Stage One, listed on 12 June 1980 and extended in 1995; and Stage Two, listed on 15 September 1989. On 28 April 2010 the two Ramsar sites were combined to form a single Ramsar site encompassing the entire park. Appendix B summarises the Ramsar criteria of the park.

In March 1996, the parties to the Ramsar Convention agreed to establish an East Asian–Australasian Flyway to protect areas used by migratory shorebirds.