The Nature Conservation Act

The Nature Conservation Act 1992 provides for protected areas to be dedicated or declared in order to conserve nature. There are 11 classes of protected areas divided into 3 broad areas:

• State-owned land - National Park (scientific), National Park, Conservation Park and Resources Reserve. (A Conservation Park has the same conservation status as a National Park but allows more flexibility in allowing activities such as horse riding.)
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land - National Park (Aboriginal land) and National Park (Torres Strait Islander land).
• Private lands or multi-tenure areas - Nature Refuge, Co-ordinated Conservation Area, Wilderness Area, World Heritage Management Area and International Agreement Area. These provide nature conservation management with the agreement of landowners.

The Nature Conservation (Wildlife) Regulation 1994 specifies native animals and plants into several classes based on a scientific assessment of the conservation status of each species or family.
The classes of wildlife include -
common, rare (collectively prescribed as protected wildlife),
vulnerable, endangered, presumed extinct (threatened wildlife),
international and prohibited wildlife (non-native species).

• Common. Includes the majority of well known species, including most possum and eucalypt species in S-E Queensland.
• Rare. Highly localised or occurring very intermittently over a larger range and thus rarely seen.
• Vulnerable. Susceptible to extinction Some such species are still relatively common in their favoured habitat but the habitats are small and specialised and/or have shrunk dramatically over recent years.
  The brush-tailed rock wallaby is an example of a species classified as vulnerable. It has disappeared from most of its original range with specialised habitats in south-east Queensland and north-east NSW now being their main stronghold.
• Endangered. The population is so low in number and/or restricted to such small specialised habitats that it is in significant danger of extinction.

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