Daintree National Park management plan released

A new management plan for the world’s oldest tropical rainforest will helpensure the cultural knowledge, connectedness and understanding of First Nations peoples remains protected and preserved for future generations.

Member for Cook Cynthia Lui said it’s great to see a management plan that has been built on the cultural knowledge of First Nations peoples.

“The Daintree National Park is the traditional country for the Eastern Kuku Yalanji People,” she said.

“They have lived in the Daintree for at least 5000 years and have developed a distinctive cultural heritage through their dreaming and creation stories, their traditional food gathering and use of fire for land management,” she said.

“This management plan has been prepared in close consultation with the Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation (Jabalbina) who representthe Eastern Kuku Yalanji People.”

Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation Chairperson Desmond Tayley welcomed the adoption of the Eastern Kuku Yalanji landscape as part of the new management plan.

“This is the first management plan that uses Yalanji places and names to underpin national park planning,” Mr Tayley said.

“We look forward to the plan providing a framework where Yalanji cultural values can be protected now and into the future.

“The plan will help strengthen the joint management of the Daintree National Park with QPWS and manage its natural values using shared resources and knowledge.”

Minister for Environment Leeanne Enoch said the park was presented as a cultural landscape in the plan, featuring the land and the sea as ‘Kuku Yalanji Bubu and Jalun’.

“The Daintree National Park is one of Queensland’s iconic parks and it is famous around the world for its biological diversity and as the place where the rainforest meets the reef, with the origins of many of its plants dating back millions of years,” she said.

“This new management plan is one of the first to be produced by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service that uses a values-based planning framework based on international standards.

“The plan was developed in consultation with the Wet Tropics Management Authority, ensuring the strategic direction meets our custodial obligations for managing this section of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

“It also contains strategies to tackle fire and pest management, monitoring and research, and climate change and visitor engagement.

For more information, visit: https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/managing/plans-strategies/pdf/daintree-national-park-management-plan-2019.pdf

Daintree Rainforest fast facts:

• The Daintree Rainforest is estimated to have a lineage of more than 150 million years, making it the world’s oldest tropical rainforest
• At about 1,200 square kilometres, the Daintree is part of Australia’s largest tropical rainforest system – the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area
• About 400,000 people visit the Daintree Rainforest annually
• The Wet Tropics World Heritage Area became a World Heritage site on 9 December 1988
• The Daintree National park contains an almost complete representation of the major stages in the evolution of plant life on Earth
• Many plants and animals living in the Daintree National Park are not found anywhere else on earth
• Some of the rare rainforest plants are very similar to original Gondwanan plants

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