Summary
The Australian Alps Liaison Committee (AALC) was established in 1986, with an MOU signed between NSW, VIC, ACT, and federal national park authorities for the cooperative management of the Alps. The AALC has a whole-of-alps focus and existing relationships with First Nations, communities and community groups (such as the Kosciuszko Hut Association and Landcare), Alpine resorts, and government. However, the AALC’s focus is ecosystem preservation, rather than adaptation to preserve social and economic values. Limited resources mean that the AALC has focused on keeping alpine habitats intact, employing many of the “no regrets” actions such as pest and weed control. However, the AALC has limited capacity to focus on individual species or develop the more novel and transformative responses to climate change across the entire alps landscape that are required.
Governance changes in the Australian Alps could address some of these issues, provide a facilitator and implementation mechanism for deliberative spaces, and improve the adaptive capacity of the Alps. One recent change has been the re-establishment of the Australian Alps Ministerial Council (AAMC) in June 2023, comprised of the federal, NSW, VIC, and ACT Environment Ministers. Re-establishment of the AAMC is an opportunity for climate adaptation and mitigation action, however, this group still faces challenges associated with democratically elected governments, such as short-termism. Broadening the scope and resourcing of the AALC would enable a whole-of-alps approach with a specific adaptation focus, allowing exploration of novel and transformative responses to climate change that is cognisant of the challenges and opportunities across the entire alps. Specifically including deliberative spaces in the AALC’s remit could also enable the conversations with communities and First Nations that will be critical to make adaptation decisions that preserve values.
Recommendations
Governments should facilitate conversations between all Australian Alps stakeholders and knowledge holders to determine which values can and should be maintained in the Alps.
Deliberative spaces and an implementation mechanism for such spaces need to be integrated into the Australian Alps governance system.
The Australian Alps Liaison Committee (AALC), catchment management authorities, and regional organisations of councils have a critical role as these deliberative spaces due to their capacity to build local relationships with communities, First Nations, and businesses.
The scope and resourcing of the Australian Alps Liaison Committee (AALC) should be expanded to include a whole-of-alps approach focused on climate adaptation and community engagement.
Further adaptation strategies specific to the Australian Alps should be developed that explicitly address future trade-offs, just adaptation, and collaboration with stakeholders and knowledge holders. These strategies should consider employing a climate adaptation framework such as the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework.