Appendix 15 -
NPA Letter (Southern Sydney Branch)
|
|
 |
SOUTHERN SYDNEY BRANCH
PO Box 135 Oatley NSW 2223
Phone :(02) 95701813 Fax :(02) 95701813
Email: schoer@ozemail.com.au |
|
Statement by National Parks Association of NSW
Southern Sydney Branch regarding the Great Kai`mia Way |
While our Branch of NPA has written to Sutherland Environment Centre offering "in-principle" support for this project, we wish to place on record some particular concerns.
These concerns have been communicated in detail to the "Centre" and several of them have been acknowledged in formal and informal communications to us and through some changes already made to the feasibility study.
We thank the Environment Centre for the degree of conciliation it has displayed in accepting, acting on and publishing our concerns.
Our branch acknowledges the fact that our Association is no longer referred to as a "partner" within the feasibility study. We understand that the Environment Centre only wished there to be an explicit acknowledgement of NPA as being a contributor to "ground truthing" information about some tracks within Heathcote National Park to supplement an audit of tracks from maps only. There is a shared agreement between Sutherland Environment Centre and NPA that NPA is not giving a formal imprimatur to any tracks being promoted within Heathcote National Park for biking purposes.
The former reference in draft 1 to NPA as being a "truthing partner" has been removed.
The term "stakeholder" has been more clearly defined (Chapter 2, page 15) so as not to give the unintentional impression that all contributors to this project support everything within it 100%.
NPA believes that there should be no future promotion of "biking tracks" within National Parks. There is increasing current evidence to suggest that there is a not inconsiderable proportion of bike riders who flout rules and use non-bike tracks or go off track to find adventurous experiences, with negative consequences for the natural environment. Any further promotion of the potential for biking in National Parks is, we believe, counter-productive to the need to promote only sustainable and passive activities in National Parks. Bike riders will find "legal" tracks without major promotions anyway.
While the Environment Centre, in formal correspondence to us, acknowledges that it is the prime responsibility of NPWS to manage uses of activities on lands under their control, we in NPA wish to place on the formal record the fact that we support this principle beyond all other actions by community groups which promote regionally based recreational pursuits.
Indeed, NPA advocates that no consideration of bikeways or shared tracks within a National Park should take place in the absence of good regional planning while acknowledging that potential bike paths do occur beyond the park system. In no way should planning for bikeways in projects such as this be a replacement for good regional recreational planning.
Cross-government agency planning for mountain bike, trail bike and 4WD provision is occurring in Western Sydney at this moment (Bob Conroy, Central Region Manager, NPWS, personal communication) and a similar scale of planning for other parts of Sydney should also occur. NPA has been consistently advocating within different forums that this occurs.
Besides issues about the risk of promotions of activities that may be unsustainable, NPA is aware that NPWS's resources for policing escalating activities such as mountain bike riding are very limited. NPWS should not find itself in a situation where resources to police activities that should be a whole of region concern will contribute to cutting back expenditure on other necessary works and activities within the National Parks Estate. We in NPA regularly see the negative consequences of lack of resources on National Park management, and expend much of our efforts trying to address this issue at whole of government level.
In summary, NPA urges the Environment Centre and any partners and contributing organisations to heed this specific advice from the premier non-government group in NSW and to proceed extremely cautiously when dealing with issues that may lead to increased pressures on our natural areas.
NPA looks forward to being a continuing participants in helping the Environment Centre ensure that its visionary aims in this project are matched by the best possible advice about risks and ways of ensuring sustainability of the region's natural lands. |
| |
Gary Schoer, Secretary
19/12/03 |
|
• Exec Summary 
Sutherland Shire Environment Centre | Suite 4 (1st Floor), 2-4 Merton Street, Sutherland NSW 2232