ABSTRACT Conservation interests hope to use tourism as a tool in conservation, whereas tourism interests want to use conservation as a tool in tourism development. Both promote partnerships, but with different political aims. In federated nations such as Australia, this involves industry associations and government agencies in different jurisdictions as well as different portfolios. There are several recent national-scale initiatives in Australia. The Tourism in Australia’s Protected Areas Forum, TAPAF, is an informal information exchange group between state protected area management agencies which also includes state government tourism representatives. TAPAF has promoted a Code of Practice for commercial tour operators in protected areas. Ecotourism Australia is an industry association which has promoted a Cairns Charter on Partnerships for Ecotourism. The National Tourism and Heritage Taskforce is the highest-level consultative body, representing both industry and government, tourism and environment, federal and state levels. NTHT has produced a national strategy called Going Places, currently under implementation. The federal tourism portfolio has produced a somewhat conflicting document of its own, called Pursuing Common Goals. And the peak tourism industry association, formerly the Tourism Task Force and currently known as TTF Australia, is soon due to launch a report called Making National Parks a National Tourism Priority. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 12 March 2003; Revised 14 December 2003; Accepted 21 December 2003 Keywords: parks conservation funding policy INTRODUCTION — THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT Tourism and conservation credits and debits T he global tourism industry depends heavily on the conservation sector to establish and maintain the protected areas that provide many of the world’s prime tourist attractions, including publicly funded access, infrastructure and facilities (Fennell, 1999; Weaver, 2001; Eagles and McCool, 2002; Newsome et al., 2002). In making use of these areas, the tourism industry produces a number of negative environmental impacts, and these increase funds required for resource and visitor management (Liddle, 1997; Weaver, 2001; Buckley and King, 2003; Buckley, in press). Tourism may also trigger residential development adjacent to protected areas, so- called amenity migration, with large-scale impacts on conservation. Tourism can some- times make a positive contribution to conser- vation by: establishing private protected areas; lobbying for World Heritage, national parks and other public protected areas; improving Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH Int. J. Tourism Res. 6, 75–83 (2004) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI:10.1002/jtr.472 Partnerships in Ecotourism: Australian Political Frameworks Ralf Buckley* International Centre for Ecotourism Research, Griffith University, Parklands Drive, Southport, Australia *Correspondence to: R. Buckley, International Centre for Ecotourism Research, Griffith University, Parklands Drive, Southport, Australia E-mail: R.Buckley@griffith.edu.au