Support Indigenous Protected Areas 2

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Dear >your local MP's name will be inserted here<, Minister Frydenberg and Minister Scullion

I am deeply concerned that support for the protection of nature by traditional owners over vast areas of Australia is due to run out in June 2018, when current Indigenous Protected Area contracts expire.

If Australia’s Indigenous Protected Area funding is not renewed, we stand to lose substantial environmental, social and economic benefits. Through Indigenous Protected Areas, traditional owners work with the government to protect our precious wildlife, including many threatened species, and incredible wild places. Indigenous Protected Areas support land and sea management for more than 10 times the area of Tasmania and make a major contribution to Australia’s international obligations by representing 45% of the National Reserve System.

The management of fire, feral animals, invasive weeds, threatened species and cultural heritage is too important to be left without funding security. The existing 75 Indigenous Protected Areas, and 18 currently in planning, need certainty to ensure they can retain staff and plan for the future.

As well as protecting nature for every Australian, the evidence repeatedly shows that Indigenous Protected Areas deliver meaningful work with social and economic benefits to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Established by the federal government in 1998, Indigenous Protected Areas have a long and successful record of supporting good governance and providing a catalyst for new enterprise such as carbon farming, tourism, research and environmental contracting.

We should be investing in our people and our landscapes by securing Indigenous Protected Areas. What will you do to ensure Indigenous Protected Areas are secured for the long term in the May 2017 Federal Budget?

Yours sincerely,

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Indigenous Protected Areas make up over 44% of Australia’s National Reserve System, covering more than 67 million hectares - that's an area nearly the size of the whole state of New South Wales.

Indigenous Protected Areas enable a strategic, coordinated, accountable plan for protecting nature at the same time as generating meaningful work in remote Indigenous communities and creating new economic opportunities like tourism. Opportunities for new Indigenous Protected Areas are coming up as land claims progress, awareness and capacity of local Indigenous organisations grows, and recognition of IPAs as realistic alternative economic options in many remote areas increases.

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Country Needs People is a national not-for-profit organisation born from the support of hundreds of Traditional Owners around the country.

ALWAYS WAS, ALWAYS WILL BE, ABORIGINAL LAND.