Welcome “first step” - Camden Sound marine park announcement. Could this be WA’s first Indigenous managed marine park?

The Wilderness Society WA Inc
Media Release
4 October 2009

The WA Premier Colin Barnett and Minister for the Environment, Donna Faragher MLC, yesterday announced a marine park would be established at Camden Sound in the Kimberley to protect a portion of the Humpback whale ‘maternity ward’ as part of the Kimberley science and conservation strategy.

The Wilderness Society WA Kimberley Campaigner Josh Coates said “The Government has a real opportunity here to put in place the first Indigenous owned and managed marine park in WA. This is an opportunity to create real jobs for Indigenous people by providing them the opportunity to manage and protect their land via programs such as Indigenous ranger groups and whale watching tourism businesses.”

“These kinds of conservation initiatives present a way forward for providing genuine employment for Indigenous people on Country, in direct contrast to the false expectations for Indigenous employment in the specialized, mainly ‘fly in fly out’, oil and gas sector.”

Mr Coates went on to say “This announcement is a positive step in the right direction for the development of a much needed, long overdue conservation strategy for the Kimberley.
“We welcome the Premiers statement that ‘This remarkable area warrants protection as a first step in the broader conservation of the Kimberley’.  This park will not alone protect the whales or the Kimberley but it is a good example of the kinds of actions needed on a broader scale.

“It is important that this long overdue declaration of the intent to put in place a marine park does not overshadow the facts that:
1. The whales of the Kimberley coast are still threatened by proposals to build a LNG processing plant at James Price Point and;
2. The Government still has a long way to go in protecting the Kimberley coast.

“Recommendations for the whole of the Kimberley’s marine waters to become a multiple use marine park from the Marine Parks and Reserves Authority, and Department for Environment and Conservation recommendations  regarding  21 separate Kimberley areas worthy of protection from as long ago as 1994, are yet to be addressed.”

For further comment: Josh Coates (The Wilderness Society WA) 0438 805 284
The Wilderness Society’s submission to the Science and Conservation Strategy, outlining the environmental movement’s expectations from the State Government’s Kimberley science and conservation strategy can be downloaded from http://www.wilderness.org.au/articles/the-wilderness-society-outlines-a-vision-for-conservation-and-compatible-development-in-the-kimberley