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Editors --- "Kakadu National Park Plan of Management - Digest" [1999] AUIndigLawRpr 48; (1999) 4(4) Australian Indigenous Law Reporter 96

Kakadu National Park Plan of Management

Kakadu National Park Board of Management

1997

Kakadu National Park was the first place in Australia where a nature conservation agency joined with Aboriginal traditional owners to jointly manage Aboriginal land as a national park. Kakadu has developed in three stages: in 1978 leases were executed between the Kakadu Aboriginal Land Trust and the Director of National Parks, in 1991 with the Jabiluka Aboriginal Land Trust and in 1996 with the Gunlom Aboriginal Land Trust. These lease agreements provide for traditional owners and relevant Aboriginal people to continue traditional use of any area of the park for hunting or food gathering, ceremonial and religious purposes and the right to reside within the park.

The current joint management arrangements hinge on:

• the statutory framework of the park lease agreements established under the Aboriginal Land Rights NT Act 1976 (Cth) (the Land Rights Act);
• the Board of Management established in 1989 with a majority of Aboriginal members; and
• plans of management established under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975 (Cth) (the NPWC Act).

The Land Rights Act provides the necessary mechanisms for Aboriginal land to be leased to the Director of National Parks & Wildlife and for it to be declared a national park and managed accordingly. Consequently the Northern Land Council plays a major role in the development and implementation of the joint management arrangements in Kakadu.

The NPWC Act establishes the statutory office of the Director of National Parks & Wildlife and Parks Australia which assists the Director in carrying out his/her functions. It provides for Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory which is leased to the Director to be declared as a national park. It also requires that a plan of management be prepared, and more specifically provides for the establishment of a Board of Management for parks on Aboriginal land.

The Kakadu Board of Management functions are set out in the NPWC Act. They are:

• to prepare, along with the Director, plans of management for the park;
• to make decisions consistent with the Plan of Management, about the management of the park;
• to monitor, with the Director, the management of the park; and
• to give advice, along with the Director, to the Minister on all aspects of how the park develops in the future.

The Act also provides for arbitration and ministerial direction where the Director and the Board are unable to agree on the contents of the Plan of Management.

Plans of Management are developed jointly with the Director of National Parks and Wildlife and the Kakadu Board of Management. The Plan of Management describes how the Board believes the park should be managed and the direction of management for a specified period of time. It enables management to proceed in an orderly way; it helps to reconcile competing interests; and identifies priorities for allocation available resources. Two important features of the Act in relation to the Plan are that:

• it provides for formal opportunities for the Chairperson of the Northern Land Council to comment on the Plan, and where he/she disagrees with the Board/Director on the contents of the Plan, a process of arbitration to resolve this dispute; and
• it provides that regard shall be had, in preparing the Plan, to the interests of the traditional Aboriginal owners and of other Aboriginal people interested in land within the park.

Issues of importance to the Board of Management during the development of the fourth Kakadu Plan of Management included tourism opportunities for Aboriginal traditional owners, research undertaken in the park including the issues of intellectual property rights and consulting and decision making with Aboriginal people.^[1]

^[1] The 1997 Kakadu National Park Plan of Management is available at: <www.biodiversity.environment.gov.au/kakadu/kakadu/pom.html>