Introduction

The Biodiversity Council welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the 2026-2030 Alpine Resorts Strategic Plan (‘Strategic Plan).

Our understanding

The Strategic Plan provides the long-term strategic objectives for the alpine sector in Victoria.The individual Resort Management Plans will translate the objectives into place-based actions.

The Strategic Plan includes the following:

• contextual information
• a vision, six objectives and actions to support each objective, and
• sector outcome metrics for 2030 compared to 2024.

The contextual information including the introduction, ‘The Value of Victoria’s Alpine Resorts’ section and the 'Environmental Significance of the Alpine Resorts’ section all note the uniqueness of alpine habitat and ecosystems and note the need to protect it. More specifically, the 'Environmental Significance of the Alpine Resorts’ section notes that:

“[n]estled within rare mountain ecosystems that represent less than 0.3% of the state’s landmass, these resorts are custodians of habitats where around 30% of Victoria’s threatened alpine flora and 20% of the state’s threatened alpine fauna species are found.”

The ‘Economic and social significance of Victoria’s alpine sector’ section notes that the resorts provide environmental benefits in the form of ecosystem services and existence benefits. The ecosystem services are unquantified, but the existence benefits are calculated at $820 million per annum, second only to the visitor expenditure ($1.33 billion per annum) in terms of economic benefit.

There is a notable disconnect between the environmental importance described in the context and the lack of specific protections or outcomes in the plan's framework.

While building resilience to climate change is “paramount to the industry’s future” and a “key focus for the next five years”, this is only reflected in the economic and social elements of the Strategic Plan, there is very little on the threat that climate change poses to the natural environment and how to build resilience to it.

Please download our submission for our full analysis, key concerns and recommendations.

Summary of recommendations

The Biodiversity Council recommends that:

1. The vision be revised to include protection of Victoria’s unique alpine environment.
2. The sector outcome metrics include a metric specific to conserving the natural environment with targets of 100% change in suitable habitat and net gain in native vegetation extent and condition.
3. The Environmental Significance of the Alpine Resort section be expanded to include a discussion of threats to natural values and the need to manage them holistically in the context of climate change and further development.
4. Alpine resorts, in partnership with public land managers, fund implementation of recovery plans for threatened alpine species.
5. The actions to protect the natural environment be expanded to include development of a climate adaptation strategy to build resilience of the natural environment, protection of key biodiversity values from development, and development of a recreational management plan to manage the specific impacts from increased summer tourism and reduced snow cover.
6. The Strategic Plan identify the conflicts and trade-offs between development and protection of the natural environment and make a commitment to protecting biodiversity from all incompatible uses.