Geography

Home > Geography > Ecosystems at risk > Case studies of ecosystems > Minnamurra Rainforest: Virtual Fieldtrip

Stop 9:Managing ecosystems at risk

National Parks and Wildlife Service

Click to enter NPWS home page

Interpretative guide at work
Click for a job profile for a guide in Minnamurra Rainforest

The National Parks and Wildlife Service of NSW has managed the Minnamurra Rainforest since 1986. Minnamurra Rainforest is managed as part of the Budderoo National Park

, although its special role in education and ecotourism means it is managed seperately in some areas.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service plays a role in the conservation of designated National Parks around NSW, looking after both natural and cultural aspects of the parks. Wherever possible it seeks to work with traditional owners of National Parks to maintain traditional management strategies together with the contemporary approaches.

Many of these parks contain ecosystems at risk and the NPWS uses a conservation approach to management whilst, at the same time, continuing to use some geographical methods to research these ecosystems to improve our knowledge about them as well as to improve our management of them. Research projects include such areas as biodiversity and ecology . Although some of these research projects are very complex, others contain elements of the type of activities that anyone can undertake towards the conservation of National Parks and other ecosystems at risk.

The people who work for the NPWS need to have an understanding of ecosystems at risk and include park rangers, interpretative guides, field officers and business managers. In many areas there are particular jobs for Aboriginal applicants because of the role they can play in helping to maintain traditional management. Qualifications for jobs such as these with the NPWS vary from university degrees in geography and environmental science to practical experience in building tracks, doing search and rescue and fighting fires.

Fieldwork activities

Evaluate the management strategies of the National Parks and Wildlife Service in general and for Minnamurra Rainforest specifically in terms of ecological sustainability. (H5)

Explain why the geographical methods that the National Parks and Wildlife Service uses for research of ecosystems are useful to its work. (H7)

Evaluate the usefulness of this web page as a source of geographical information. How could you get better information that is even more up to date? (H9)

Having completed this virtual fieldtrip create a log of events and activities showing how this field trip, has explained human impacts on Minnamurra Rainforest and use this to develop a log of events and activities for a real-life field trip to Minnamurra or another ecosystem at risk. (H8)