Public Consultation strand of the Strategic Review of the National Parks and Wildlife Service

Please note that the closing date for making written submissions and completion of the online survey, in relation to the public consultation strand of the Strategic Review of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, has been extended to the 2nd April, 2021.

The Programme for Government – Our Shared Future, sets out a commitment to, “review the remit, status and funding of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), to ensure that it is playing an effective role in delivering its overall mandate and enforcement role in the protection of wildlife”.

The overall mandate of the National Parks and Wildlife Service can be précised as being to preserve, protect and present our Natural Heritage and the forthcoming review will cover all aspects of this mandate. The review of NPWS thus will be cognisant of its full role in terms of not only nature conservation, biodiversity and enforcement of wildlife legislation but also in terms of development, management and presentation of our National Parks, Nature Reserves and restored peatlands, including their amenity use and importance to local communities, regional economic development, sustainable tourism and employment.

The review will comprise three distinct strands that will be undertaken concurrently:

• Strand one will be focused upon stakeholder engagement (both internal and external).
• The second strand will be focused upon reviewing NPWS’ capacity and resourcing.
• The third strand will consist of a comparative desktop analysis of resources/structures of similar organisations in other jurisdictions and an overview of the role and responsibilities of other state bodies and their relationship with NPWS.

The three strands will operate in parallel, with their findings informing the final report that will be prepared by the Independent Chair.

The first element of the stakeholder engagement strand is an online survey and it should be submitted by the 2nd April, 2021.

In addition, stakeholders can make a short written Submission (guidelines below) also by 2nd April, addressed to the email: reviewofnpws21@gmail.com.

Submission guidelines:

We welcome a 1 - 2 page document (up to 1,000 words), setting out your response to the Terms of Reference, including:

• your views on the role, remit, constraints and performance of NPWS (As Is)
• recommendations on the future role, mandate and remit of NPWS (To be).

Key stakeholders will be invited to participate in online interviews.

The Terms of Reference for the review have been finalised and are available to view on the website of the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

All submissions and comments submitted for this purpose are subject to release under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2014 and are also subject to Data Protection legislation.

Personal, confidential or commercially sensitive information should not be included in your submission and it will be presumed that all information contained in your submission is releasable under FOI legislation.

Please note that submissions may be made available on the Department’s website, unless otherwise requested. In any event, all submissions received will be subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information and Data Protection legislation.

Submissions to this consultation fell into the following three categories:

• online survey responses from members of the public and NPWS staff
• individual written submissions from members of the public
• written submissions from stakeholder organisations.

Category 1 – Organisations and Groups

Submissions were received from 65 groups and organisations.

64 submissions are published in full here. All have been edited to remove personal information. External links have also been removed for security reasons.

One submission has been withheld from publication as it relates to a criminal investigation.

Category 2 – Members of the Public

135 submissions were made to the consultation by members of the public. 134 of those are published here. One submission has been withheld from publication at the request of the submitter.

All submissions have been published in full, with the exception of personal information. External links have also been removed for security reasons.

Category 3 – Online survey responses

2997 online survey responses were submitted directly to and processed by a Department-contracted third party (the authors of the Phase 1 report on the consultation) for independent analysis, as set out in the public consultation privacy statement. They provided NPWS with a summary of those submissions, which is published here.