Indigenous Protected Areas (IPA) Program: Existing IPA projects

Overview

Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) are areas of land and/or sea, managed by First Nations people for biodiversity conservation. There are 84 dedicated IPAs across approximately 87 million terrestrial hectares of Australia and 5 million hectares of sea. These IPAs are recognised by the Australian Government as an important part of the National Reserve System (NRS), which is the network of formally recognised parks, reserves and protected areas across Australia and complementary to the National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas. IPAs now make up more than 50 percent of the NRS. This grant opportunity will provide funding to existing (dedciated and consultation) IPA projects. There are two stages to an IPA project under the Program. All IPAs start with a Consultation Stage. This stage involves Indigenous led discussion and planning processes amongst Indigenous Traditional Owners and others and includes the development of a management plan. The management plan identifies the values of the proposed IPA area and the threats to those values, outlines the management goals, and includes the relevant International Union for Conservation of Nature protected area category or categories for which the area will be managed. The IPA project moves to the Dedication Stage following approval of the management plan by Traditional Owners (and endorsement of the plan by the Australian Government) and an informed decision by Traditional Owners to dedicate their land, or land and sea, as an IPA. The Dedication Stage involves managing the IPA in accordance with the approved management plan. The Australian Government will recognise the terrestrial area of the dedicated IPA as part of the NRS.