Curtis Island National Park
Curtis Island National Park is on Curtis Island, Gladstone Region, Australia, 474 kilometres northwest of Brisbane and 40 km southeast of Rockhampton. The island features littoral rainforest, sand dunes and beach ridges and salt flats; the national park encompasses. No facilities are provided for campers. Bush camping is permitted in three camp grounds. Curtis Island has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: Sea Hill Point: Sea Hill Light Port of Gladstone Protected areas of Queensland
Mount Jim Crow National Park
Mount Jim Crow National Park is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 531 kilometres northwest of Brisbane. It lies just beside the main road between Yeppoon. Camping is not permitted in the park and there are no facilities; the main feature of the park is Mount Jim Crow, a trachyte plug, a remnant of an extinct volcano. The Darumbal people have traditionally regarded Mount Jim Crow as a significance place in their Dreamtime stories. Protected areas of Queensland
Pastoralism
Pastoralism is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care and use of animals such as cattle, goats, llamas, reindeer and sheep. "Pastoralism" has a mobile aspect but this can take many forms and be at different scales. Sedentary pastoralism is becoming more common as the hardening of political borders, expansion of crop agriculture, building of fences reduces ability to move. Mobile pastoralism includes moving herds distances in search of fresh pasture and water, something that can occur daily or within a few hours, to transhumance, where animals are moved seasonally, to nomadism, where pastoralists and families move with the animals year-round. In sedentary pastoralism, or pastoral farming, pastoralists grow crops and improve pastures for their livestock. One example is a savanna area where pastoralists and their animals gather when rainwater is abundant and the pasture is rich scatter during the drying of the savanna.. Another is the movement of livestock from summer pastures in lowlands, to montane pastures in the summer where grass is green and plentiful during the dry season.
Grazing in woodlands and forests may be referred to as silvopastoralism. Pastoralist herds interact with their environment, mediate human relations with the environment as a way of turning uncultivated plants like wild grass into consumable, high quality, food. In many places, grazing herds on savannas and woodlands can help maintain the biodiversity of the savannas and prevent them from evolving into dense shrublands or forests. Grazing and browsing at the appropriate levels can increase biodiversity in Mediterranean climate regions. Pastoralists may use fire to make ecosystems more suitable for grazing and browsing animals. For instance, the Turkana people of northwest Kenya use fire to prevent the invasion of the savanna by woody plant species. Biomass of the domesticated and wild animals was increased by a higher quality of grass. Pastoralism is found in many variations throughout the world where enviornmental charactersitics such as aridity, poor soils, cold or hot temperature, lack of water make crop growing difficult or impossible.
Pastoralism remains a way of life in Africa, the Tibetan plateau, the Eurasian steppes, the Andes, the Pampas and other many other places. Composition of herds, management practices, social organization and all other aspects of pastoralism vary between areas and between social groups. Many traditional practices have had to adapt to the changing circumstance of the modern world, including climatic conditions affecting the availability of grasses and the loss of mobility over large landscapes. Ranches of the United States and sheep stations and cattle stations of Australia are seen by some as modern variations. One theory is. Bates and Lees proposed that it was the incorporation of irrigation into farming which ensued in specialization. Advantages of mixed farming include reducing risk of failure, spreading labour, re-utilizing resources; the importance of these advantages and disadvantages to different farmers differs according to the sociocultural preferences of the farmers and the biophysical conditions as determined by rainfall, soil type, disease.
The increased productivity of irrigation agriculture led to an increase in population and an added impact on resources. Bordering areas of land remained in use for animal breeding; this meant. Specialization occurred as a result of the increasing importance of both intensive agriculture and pastoralism. Both agriculture and pastoralism developed with continuous interactions. There is another theory that suggests pastoralism evolved from gathering. Hunters of wild goats and sheep were knowledgeable about the needs of the animals; such hunters followed the herds on their seasonal rounds. Undomesticated herds were chosen to become more controllable for the proto-pastoralist nomadic hunter and gatherer groups by taming and domesticating them. Hunter-gatherers' strategies in the past have been diverse and contingent upon the local environment conditions, like those of mixed farmers. Foraging strategies have included hunting or trapping big game and smaller animals, collecting shellfish or insects, gathering wild plant foods such as fruits and nuts.
These diverse strategies for survival amongst the migratory herds could provide an evolutionary route towards nomadic pastoralism. Pastoralism occurs in uncultivated areas. Wild animals eat the forage from the marginal lands and humans survive from milk and meat of the herds and trade by-products like wool and milk for money and food. Pastoralists do not exist at basic subsistence. Pastoralists compile wealth and participate in international trade. Pastoralists have trade relations with agriculturalists, horticulturalists, other groups. Pastoralists are not extensively dependent on milk and meat of their herd. McCabe noted that when common property institutions are created, in long-lived communities, resource sustainability is much higher, evident in the East African grasslands of pastoralist populations. However, it needs to be noted that the property rights structure is only one of the many different parameters that affect the sustainability of resources, common or private property per se, does not lead to sustainability.
Some pastoralists supplement herding with hunting and gathering, fishing and/or small-scale farming or pastoral farming. Mobility allows pastoralists to adapt to the environment, which opens up the poss
Byfield National Park
Byfield is a national park in the Shire of Livingstone, Australia. The park is 70 km north-east of Rockhampton; the parks encloses 12 km of coastline including four beaches. To the north of the national park is Shoalwater Bay and Byfield State Forest is located to the west of Byfield National Park; the park contains a number of camping areas. Water Park Creek within the park contains a population of Rhadinocentrus ornatus, a small freshwater fish species; the park demarcates the southern boundary of a tropical savannah climate, although the subtropics are a degree to the south. Protected areas of Queensland
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service is a business division of the Department of Environment and Science within the Government of Queensland. The division’s primary concern is with the management and maintenance of protected areas within Queensland, to protect and manage Queensland’s parks and the Great Barrier Reef for current and future generations; the QPWS managed areas include more than 1000 national parks, state forests, marine parks and other protected areas, five world heritage areas. Queensland’s first national park, Witches Falls, was established on 28 March 1908, followed by Bunya Mountains National Park in July 1908, Lamington National Park in 1915. From modest early beginnings within the Forestry department, a dedicated national parks service was established in 1975—the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. From that time, park rangers have proudly worn QPWS uniform badge featuring the symbol, which has become one of the most well-recognised symbols in Queensland; the Nature Conservation Act 1992, Marine Parks Act 2004 and Forestry Act 1959 provide guiding legislation for the service.
Leanne Enoch, Minister for Environment and Science is responsible for the department. The agency's head office is located at 400 George Street in the Brisbane central business district. Protected areas in Queensland are needed to provide wildlife habitat to maintain biodiversity and provide opportunities for outdoor nature-based activities. Managing national parks involves protecting a park's natural condition and processes, presenting the park's cultural and natural resources and its values. Managing multiple-use marine parks involves providing refuge areas for species and ecosystems while allowing for continuing recreational and commercial use of the majority of the marine environment. A Master Plan for Queensland's Park System outlines the directions for management of all protected areas in Queensland for the next 20 years. QPWS is responsible for day-to-day management of Queensland’s five World Heritage areas, which are within the protected area estate; these properties are outstanding examples of the world's natural or cultural heritage, provide valuable environmental and economic services for Queensland.
For each park, either a management statement or a management plan is prepared to identify the park's special values and determine ways to ensure those values are preserved, enhanced or maintained. The service employs park rangers who are responsible for constructing and maintaining infrastructure such as camping areas, picnic areas, walking tracks and lookouts providing advice to visitors, recording wildlife data, controlling feral plants and animals, assisting in the preparation of management plans and enforcing park rules. QPWS works with Aboriginal Traditional Owners and, in some places, volunteers, as well as other government departments and organisations to conserve, manage and present Queensland’s most precious natural and cultural places. Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland National Parks Association of Queensland Find a park or forest
National park
A national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. It is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea: the conservation of'wild nature' for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, its World Commission on Protected Areas, has defined "National Park" as its Category II type of protected areas. While this type of national park had been proposed the United States established the first "public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people", Yellowstone National Park, in 1872. Although Yellowstone was not termed a "national park" in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is held to be the first and oldest national park in the world. However, the Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve, the area surrounding Bogd Khan Uul Mountain are seen as the oldest protected areas, predating Yellowstone by nearly a century.
The first area to use "national park" in its creation legislation was the U. S.'s Mackinac, in 1875. Australia's Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the world's third official national park. In 1895 ownership of Mackinac National Park was transferred to the State of Michigan as a state park and national park status was lost; as a result, Australia's Royal National Park is by some considerations the second oldest national park now in existence. Canada established Parks Canada in 1911, becoming the world's first national service dedicated to protecting and presenting natural and historical treasures; the largest national park in the world meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland National Park, established in 1974. According to the IUCN, 6,555 national parks worldwide met its criteria in 2006. IUCN is still discussing the parameters of defining a national park. National parks are always open to visitors. Most national parks provide outdoor recreation and camping opportunities as well as classes designed to educate the public on the importance of conservation and the natural wonders of the land in which the national park is located.
In 1969, the IUCN declared a national park to be a large area with the following defining characteristics: One or several ecosystems not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation, where plant and animal species, geomorphological sites and habitats are of special scientific and recreational interest or which contain a natural landscape of great beauty. In 1971, these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a national park; these include: Minimum size of 1,000 hectares within zones in which protection of nature takes precedence Statutory legal protection Budget and staff sufficient to provide sufficient effective protection Prohibition of exploitation of natural resources qualified by such activities as sport, fishing, the need for management, etc. While the term national park is now defined by the IUCN, many protected areas in many countries are called national park when they correspond to other categories of the IUCN Protected Area Management Definition, for example: Swiss National Park, Switzerland: IUCN Ia - Strict Nature Reserve Everglades National Park, United States: IUCN Ib - Wilderness Area Victoria Falls National Park, Zimbabwe: IUCN III - National Monument Vitosha National Park, Bulgaria: IUCN IV - Habitat Management Area New Forest National Park, United Kingdom: IUCN V - Protected Landscape Etniko Ygrotopiko Parko Delta Evrou, Greece: IUCN VI - Managed Resource Protected AreaWhile national parks are understood to be administered by national governments, in Australia national parks are run by state governments and predate the Federation of Australia.
In Canada, there are both national parks operated by the federal government and provincial or territorial parks operated by the provincial and territorial governments, although nearly all are still national parks by the IUCN definition. In many countries, including Indonesia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, national parks do not adhere to the IUCN definition, while some areas which adhere to the IUCN definition are not designated as national parks. In 1810, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy; the painter George Catlin, in his travels through the American West, wrote during the 1830s that the Native Americans in the United States might be preserved...in a magnificent park... A nation's Park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature's beauty! The first effort by the U. S. Federal government to set aside such protected lands was on 20 April 1832, when President Andrew Jackson signed legislation that the 22nd United States Congress had enacted to set aside four sections of land around what is now Hot Springs, Arkansas, to protect the natural, thermal springs and adjoining mountainsides for the futur
