ABSTRACT

This chapter extends the review of buffer planning approaches by examining how buffers have been implemented by Australian natural resource management and planning agencies. This approach to buffering, which fails to address the nature and extent of threatening processes and merely designates a set buffer distance, is a significant deficiency in many Australian buffer designs. In relation to the specific design features of Australian buffers, prescriptive distance measurements were employed by 56 per cent of agencies that had instituted buffers, with the distances being determined largely on an ad hoc basis. Land suitability or tenure was considered by 24 per cent of agencies as an important criterion in buffer design. An important purpose of the questionnaire was to better understand current Australian buffer design strategies.