The extra legal protections would be implemented first in three so-called rewilding regions that have created feral predator-free areas in Mallee Cliffs National Park, the Pilliga State Conservation Area, and Sturt National Park. The fenced-off areas would have feral cats and other introduced threats eradicated before the native animals were reintroduced. In his first major interview since taking on the dual role after last March’s elections, Matt Kean also revealed his first extensions to the national park estate, adding 5000 hectares including expanding Ramsar-listed Gwydir wetlands in the state's north. Matt Kean, the NSW Energy and Environment Minister, at Bobbin Head in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. Credit:Janie Barrett Mr Kean said the nation had lost 29 mammal species since Europeans arrived versus just two in North America over a comparable period.

Loading “It’s a stark statistic,” he told the Herald. “We don’t have to accept this - we have a choice.” “There were diaries of our early settlers, who when going through this bushland, had to dismount from their horses because there were so many animals around.” “We are facing a crisis in Australia like no other, so we need to lead the way," he said. "National parks now are all about preserving what we have. We're going to bring back what we've lost."

The public would be able to enter the sanctuaries and ecotours would likely spring up, he predicted. Richard Kingsford, director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of NSW, said their rewilding work with the government in the Sturt Desert showed early signs of success. Two large four-by-five-kilometre enclosures had been cleared of feral pests. "Once it rains, we can breed up locally extinct native animals and then the challenge is really how to go the next step and have the animals outside the fence," Professor Kingsford said. "The 'holy grail' for us is to take back those deserts where cats and foxes have held the upper hand." There are signs, for instance, that bilbies can learn how to become better at evading modern predators when cat numbers are reduced. Saving the native mammals would also contribute to building resilient ecosystems, an advance especially important as climate change adds extra strains, Professor Kingsford said.

Mr Kean’s plan follows his announcement this week that he aims to increase the size of the state’s national park estate by 200,000 hectares within two years. Loading Details on how the special sanctuaries and expanded parks will be funded are not settled, Mr Kean said, adding the options include repurposing existing funding, seeking more money from Treasury as well as a "green investment strategy" that is being developed. “We’ve got a plan to achieve that [needed funding] but it’s about going away and making it happen," he said. An insider said staff would be concerned that other programs, such as Save Our Species, might be raided to pay for the rewilding.

"There's an extinction crisis going on in our [national] parks," the official said, requesting anonymity. "The more rewilding the better." The staffer warned, though, that such programs can be "super expensive", and the number of park employees doing conservation work had been depleted. Professor Kingsford agreed that protecting species in forested areas would be more complex than in desert areas. Trees or branches could fall on fences and restricting animal movement along streams can be tricky. One funding model Mr Kean is looking at is how groups such as the Australian Wildlife Conservancy has raised money to buy and manage property. The AWC is working on two of the three rewilding trials, and its former chief executive Atticus Fleming works with Mr Kean's department. The Minister on Friday signed papers to gazette an extra 5000 hectares of national parkland, including in the Gwydir wetlands. "It’s one of the most important internationally recognised sites in Australia for colonial nesting waterbirds including magpie geese, brolga and black-necked stork," a spokeswoman for Mr Kean said.

Mr Kean also signed off on 21 Plans of Management for 37 national parks, nature reserves and state conservation areas across the state. “There will never be a national park de-gazetted and there will never be commercial logging in a national park while I’m the Environment Minister," Mr Kean said. "Not on my watch.”