Perrett at odds with minister over Gympie wildlife reserves

There are 33 protected areas and 10 nature refuges, covering almost 110,000 hectares, across the Gympie region.

AT ODDS: Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch says Gympie region landowners who want to volunteer to make their properties special wildlife reserves can now do so, but Tony Perrett claims these landowners will be "hamstrung”. Picture: Leeroy Todd

ENVIRONMENT minister Leeanne Enoch says the Gympie region is well involved in the Palaszczuk Government's increasing conservation efforts, but Gympie MP Tony Perrett claims they will only leave landowners "hamstrung”.

Ms Enoch released a statement earlier this week saying Queensland had "become the first state in Australia to create Special Wildlife Reserves ... to preserve more habitat and increase our protected area estate, allowing landowners and organisations to voluntarily "invest in this new class of protected area”.

She said protected areas now covered 8.2 per cent of the state.

"In the Gympie region, there are 33 protected areas (including national parks, conservation parks, resources reserves and nature refuges), which covers a total area of about 108,900ha,” Ms Enoch said.

"Nature refuges are another class of private protected area and are a voluntary, binding conservation program for private landholders.

"Unlike a special wildlife reserve, a nature refuge does not have national park protection, meaning other sustainable land uses are permitted on these areas (such as grazing, forestry and mining).

"In recent decades, nature refuges have made an enormous contribution to protecting our biodiversity.

"There are now 519 refuges, covering more than 4.45 million hectares, in Queensland. In Gympie there are 10 nature refuges, conserving more than 657ha of land.”

Ms Enoch said landholders interested in applying could contact the DES by email at [e-mail].

Mr Perrett called the reserves "simplistic” and "impractical”, claiming they would "only make matters worse” for landowners struggling to manage their properties.

"They may be set up with the best intent but the evidence is to the contrary to what the Government wants you to believe,” Mr Perrett said.

"The Government spins that this will help the environment but the reality is more often than not they get out of control.

"They actually do more harm because they are set up, signed off, and then lack finance or any practical ability to manage the land.”

Mr Perrett said "several” local landholders had raised concerns with the reserves, including one property which needs fencing to prevent the invasion of stray livestock.

"They are hamstrung in accessing financial loans to pay for the fencing because commercial banks view the property (which is declared a nature refuge) as high risk ... because of the strict management obligations required by a covenant over the property,” Mr Perrett said.

"In effect those management obligations are preventing them from being able to fund meeting those management obligations. Compounding their problems is that they are next to State-controlled land where there is little or no land management.

"And you can never escape it because these are perpetual agreements tying future owners to them.

"And alarm bells should be ringing that the Queensland Law Society has raised serious concerns about giving the Minister unfettered power to make declarations.

"Gympie landholders are justifiably concerned that once a property is declared there is a good chance that wildlife reserves will not be adequately managed and adjoining landholders will suffer.

"Landowners continually raise with me their concerns about land management practices to control fuel loads, invasive pests and weeds, the management of our national parks, and how they can protect their property and livestock.”

Ms Enoch's office was contacted to reply to Mr Perrett's comments.