MOVES to have the Royal National Park nominated for World Heritage listing are bogged down in the bureaucracy, with an important deadline looming.
Only a last-minute "captain's call" by federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt would allow the Saturday, January 31 deadline to be met, avoiding a further year-long delay in the process.
In 2013, Mr Hunt and then NSW environment minister Robyn Parker announced the two governments would work together towards a nomination.
Under World Heritage list rules, sites have to be on a tentative list drawn up by the federal government for a year before formal nominations are made by January 31 each year.
The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage is still assessing a consultant's report, meaning Environment Minister Rob Stokes has not yet provided advice to the federal government on placing the national park on the tentative list.
Greens NSW environment spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi said the state government had only a few days "to put their money where their mouth is".
"Protecting biodiversity must be top of the agenda, yet both the NSW and federal governments appear to have lost interest," she said.
Mr Stokes said the Greens misunderstood the process, and additions could be made to the tentative list "at any time".
"We are committed to it, and it will be done in due course," he said.
First National Park campaign leader Geoff Mosley said unless the national park was on the tentative list by Saturday, it could not be nominated until 2017.
It would then have to undergo evaluation, taking 18 months.
"But I am an optimist and I think it might be possible Greg Hunt makes a captain's call while he is in Paris this week, and adds it to the tentative list," he said.
Mr Hunt is in Europe to lobby members of the World Heritage Committee against moves to have the Great Barrier Reef formally declared "in danger" due to the proposed dumping of dredge material from a coal terminal expansion.
REASONS FOR LISTING
- The four criteria for nomination put forward by First National Park, a sub-committee of Sutherland Shire Environment Centre, include:
- The Royal National Park is the first national park in Australia (1879) and its creation marks the beginning of the conservation movement in this country.
- It is the only national park in the world within the bounds of a major city.
- Its biodiversity is wide-ranging and unique.
- It contains a wilderness area and a world heritage listing would protect this unique place from the aggressive urbanisation facing the area.
Should governments be working more quickly on the nomination?
