The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is a directorate of the
New South Wales
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, established_title = Before federation
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Department of Planning and Environment responsible for managing most of the
protected areas in the state of
New South Wales
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, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
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, established_title = Before federation
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,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
. Despite its name the NPWS is a state agency rather than a
national one, with similarly named
counterparts fulfilling comparable functions in other states and territories.
History
The NPWS was established in 1967 when the Fauna Protection Panel and the Parks and Reserves Branch of the
NSW Lands Department were amalgamated under Lands Minister
Tom Lewis . Lewis also established a charity, the National Parks Foundation, to assist the NPWS in raising funds for conservation. The first Director of the NPWS was
Sam P. Weems, formerly of the
US National Park Service. Seven years after the founding of the NPWS, various state laws regulating flora and fauna were consolidated together into the ''
National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974'', which remains the enabling legislation for the NPWS to this day.
From its establishment in 1967 until 2003 the NPWS was a discrete agency of the
NSW Government
The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...
. Since that time it has been a directorate of various broader state government departments. In September 2003 it joined with the
Environment Protection Authority, Resource New South Wales, and the
Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust to form the
Department of Environment and Conservation. This department, by then renamed as the
Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, was abolished in 2011, and the NPWS was transferred to the
Office of Environment & Heritage under the
Department of Premier and Cabinet. In 2014 the Office of Environment & Heritage was transferred to the
Department of Planning and Environment before also being abolished in 2019. Today, the NPWS continues to be a part of the Department of Planning and Environment cluster, within the Environment and Heritage Group.
Scope of activities
Nearly 900
protected areas of a variety of types have been declared in New South Wales under the ''
National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974'', most of which the NPWS has the responsibility to manage. Covering over , these range from national parks where the NPWS is tasked with conserving biodiversity and protecting ecological integrity to other less restrictive categories of parks and reserves where more intensive human activity must be balanced against maintaining natural and cultural values. This is controlled through the preparation of plans of management which determine how the NPWS manages conservation, hazard protection, research, education, and sustainable visitation activities in its parks and reserves. The NPWS also administers fire management strategies for the land it manages in order to limit risks from bushfires, such as by conducting hazard reduction burns in collaboration with other state agencies such as the
New South Wales Rural Fire Service.
Organisational structure
The NPWS is divided into four branches: Business Delivery, Park Operations (Coastal), Park Operations (Inland), and Conservation and Aboriginal Partnerships. It is lead by a Deputy Secretary, who reports to the Coordinator-General of the Environment and Heritage Group, who reports to the Secretary of the Department of Planning and Environment, who in turn reports to the
Minister for Environment and Heritage
The New South Wales Minister for the Environment and Heritage is minister in the Government of New South Wales with responsibilities which included environmental regulation and policy, national parks, and the conservation and protection of bui ...
, the minister responsible for the NPWS.
Gallery
File:2009 Toyota Land Cruiser (VDJ79R) WorkMate 2-door cab chassis, National Parks and Wildlife Service (2009-12-20) 01.jpg, Park ranger vehicle
File:NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service Helicopter hover entry and exit re-accreditation 3 (cropped).jpg, Eurocopter AS350
See also
*
Protected areas of New South Wales
The Protected areas of New South Wales include both terrestrial and marine protected areas. there are 225 national parks in New South Wales.
Based on the Collaborative Australian Protected Area Database (CAPAD) 2020 data there are 2136 separat ...
*
National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974
References
External links
Official site
{{Authority control
Government agencies of New South Wales
1967 establishments in Australia
Protected area administrators of Australia
Wildfire suppression agencies