A fundamental component of effective management is the presence of a learning or adaptive management culture, and the adoption of performance measurement systems such as benchmarking  provide critical data to support learning and adaptive processes.

The Parks Forum biennial benchmarking survey has been developed with input from Parks Forum members and an Industry Partnership with Sydney Olympic Park Authority.

It is based upon the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)- “Evaluating Effectiveness – A Framework for Assessing Management Effectiveness of Protected Areas”. It aims to measure and report on the management effectiveness of Australasian park agencies at the organisational level using a range of cultural, economic, environmental, management and social measures.

The report “Great Parks Network Benchmarks 2007 – An analysis of membership management performance” reported on the effectiveness in the areas of understanding the condition of parks and protected areas, planning, policy, resourcing and implementation of park management programs and evaluation processes. 

Parks Forum would like to acknowledge the contribution of R.W Carter, University of the Sunshine Coast in collating the data and preparing the report.

Key findings include identifying important differences between agencies that manage a large number of parks, mainly for nature conservation and those that manage fewer parks with an emphasis on recreation (urban parks). In addition, the results identified a need for more work on understanding the economic value of parks and greater appreciation of how the type of park and agency impacts upon the management of visitor facilities.

A supplementary report of raw data was produced for the Parks Forum membership. This report “Parks Forum Great Parks Network Benchmarks 2007 Agency Raw Data” enables individual agencies to compare their specific performance with that of similar agencies.

The Agency Raw Data tables cluster participating agencies as:

- National  and state large nature conservation agencies
- Regional park agencies
- Local urban park agencies
- Other park agencies

To find out more about participating in our benchmarking program, contact us.

To view benchmarking reports and other related documents click here to enter our resource database. Please note that some documents can only be viewed by members.