A modo de reflexión final

At an international level, at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, leaders from around the world come together and agreed on a broad plan for sustainable development. The leaders signed the Convention on Biological Diversity and adopted Agenda 21, a plan for achieving sustainable development in the 21st century. Agenda 21 is an international agreement for pursuing global sustainable development that was endorsed by national governments, including the Australian Government. The Convention on Biological Diversity sets out the commitments for maintaining the world's ecological base. The Convention established three important goals: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources. Article 10 is important to this thesis as it addresses criteria which management bodies should adopt, and has relevance to the sustainability of Little Penguins

(b) adopt measures relating to the use of biological resources to avoid or minimize adverse impacts on biological diversity .

Agenda 21 espouses the importance of adopting measures to, amongst other things, protect biological resources. The Little Penguins at the three case study sites, the subjects of this research project arguably are a biological resource, which should be protected under this international agreement. They are impacted by tourism, Agenda 21, reminds the reader that:

83 Tourism that focuses on natural environments is a large and growing part of the tourism industry. While it can contribute in a positive manner to socio-economic development and environmental protection, uncontrolled tourism growth can also cause environmental degradation, destruction of fragile ecosystems, and social and cultural conflict, undermining the basis of tourism(United Nations, 1992).

5.2.2 National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia's Biological

Diversity

Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, ratified by Australia in 1993, Australia adopted its own national strategy for the conservation of Australia's biological diversity. This aimed to bridge the gap between current activities and the effective identification, conservation and management of Australia's biological diversity. The strategy recognises that the conservation of biological diversity provides significant cultural, economic, educational, environmental, scientific and social benefits for Australians. Also, that there is a need for more knowledge and better understanding of Australia's biological diversity, additionally, that there is a pressing need to strengthen current activities and improve policies, practices and attitudes to achieve conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity in Australia. The core objectives of this strategy are to protect biological diversity and maintain ecological processes and systems, (Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council, 1976). There are important principles espoused in this strategy that a relevant and important to this thesis and its discussions on sustainable use of Little Penguin colonies used for commercial purposes, on these important points is shown below: To protect biological diversity and maintain essential ecological processes and life-support systems (DEST,1996). The guiding principles espoused are also very relevant to this topic, which suggest that although all levels of government have clear responsibility, the cooperation of conservation groups, resource users, indigenous peoples, and the community in general, are also critical components to the conservation of biological diversity. Additionally, it is vital to anticipate, prevent and attack at source the causes of significant reduction or loss of biological diversity; and that lack of full knowledge should not be an excuse for postponing action to conserve biological diversity (DEST, 1996).

5.2.3. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

The Commonwealth legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) provides a legal framework to protect and manage nationally and

84 internationally important flora, fauna, ecological communities and heritage places — defined in the Act as matters of national environmental significance.

Within the marine environment of the Australian coastline live thousands of marine species, some of which are unique to Australia and all of which contribute to making Australia the most biodiversely rich country. The Australian Government uses the EPBC Act to protect and manage threatened, migratory and marine species. It should be noted that the Australian Government has jurisdiction from three nm to 200 nautical miles (nm) from high water mark (hwm) – the Tasmanian Government has responsibility from hwm out to three nm. The EPA, 1999 provides protection and conservation of marine species under Section 266 (d) of the Act, the regulations may:

(d) provide for the protection and conservation of listed marine species (Australian Government, 1999).

To accomplish this Government has established a set of categories. Under the EPBC Act categories listed are; threatened species and ecological communities, critically endangered, conservation dependant and extinct in the wild, endangered, vulnerable and extinct for threatened species and critically endangered. Little Penguin is a listed marine species; it is not listed as an endangered, threatened or vulnerable marine species. However Little Penguins are afforded protected under the Act, through the protection of their environment, promotion of their biodiversity, and through the seeking of co-operative protection and management from governments, community and landholders (EPA, 1999).

Additionally, the Minister may use their powers and seek to have developed a wildlife conservation plan for a listed Marine Species, such as Little Penguins under Section 285 of the EPA 1999 Act. Further, Section 458 (b) of the EPA Act, 1999 also provides the ability of the Australian Government to seek an audit; such an audit would provide an assessment of the risks to the environment resulting from activities at a site or impacts from potential activities. While Section 96 of the Act provides the Minister with the ability to seek an environmental assessment of impacts at the site, arguably more importantly the Minister has the ability to tailor a response plan as a result of the identified impacts.