Recognition of Aboriginal rights, interests and values in river research and management: Perspectives from northern Australia

Summary Aboriginal people perceive land and water as equal components of country, and hold distinct perspectives on water relating to identity and attachment to place, environmental knowledge, resource security, and the exercise of custodial responsibilities to manage interrelated parts of customary estates. This paper documents Aboriginal perspectives from certain areas in northern Australia, defined as the region of tropical savannas stretching from Townsville to Broome, and offers a number of suggestions for improving current knowledge of Aboriginal values and Aboriginal participation rates in water and catchment management. The paper highlights the cultural significance of rivers and water in selected northern regions, and provides a preliminary outline of research and management priorities as determined by key north Australian Aboriginal land management organizations. Priorities include developing the capacity for collaborative aquatic resource management, conservation of traditional ecological knowledge, riparian resource inventories and threat assessment, as well as improved Aboriginal participation in catchment management and water policy. Although there is a strong north Australian focus to this paper, the issues raised are relevant to water and natural resource management policy throughout Australia.     

Fire management in Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area: Ecosystem restoration using Indigenous‐style fire regimes?

Summary In many natural areas, changes in fire regimes since European settlement have resulted in adverse impacts on elements of biological diversity that survived millennia of land management by Indigenous people. Some of the rainforest and alpine elements that depend on south‐west Tasmania’s World Heritage Area have been in decline since European settlement of Tasmania due to an increase in the incidence of landscape‐scale fires in the period 1850–1940. Some of the buttongrass moorland elements that also depend on the region are in decline or impending decline because of a decreased incidence and/or size of burns since 1940. Will an Indigenous‐style fire regime serve the interests of biological diversity? We examine this question in the context of the fire ecology and fire history of south‐west Tasmania. From this assessment we argue that a return to Indigenous‐ style burning, modified to address contemporary issues such as the prevention of unplanned ignition, suppression of wildfires and burning to favour rare and threatened species may help to reverse trends towards ecosystem degradation in this region.     

Utz Wachil: Findings from an International Study of Indigenous Perspectives on Health and Environment

This article reports previously unpublished results of a collaborative study undertaken in 2003 by health workers of the UK-based organisation Health Unlimited, and by researchers of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. This study marked the first of a series of collaborative activities aimed at highlighting the situation of Indigenous peoples, some in the most isolated ecosystems of the planet. While many researchers focus on quantitative analysis of the health and environmental conditions of Indigenous peoples, our 2003 study aimed at exploring the views of Indigenous peoples in isolated communities in five countries on their environment and their health. In this article we look closely at the web of knowledge and belief that underpins Indigenous peoples’ concepts of health and well-being, and their relationship to land and the environment. Although many Indigenous people have been forced off their traditional lands and live in rural settlements, towns, and cities, there are still a large number of people living in very small Indigenous communities in remote areas. This article focuses on 20 such communities in six countries. We explore traditional knowledge and practice and its relationship to Western medicine and services. The research findings highlight the importance of Indigenous knowledge systems for the emerging ecohealth community and suggest that we have much to learn from Indigenous peoples in our pursuit of a more holistic science. Utz Wachil is from the K’iche language originating in Totonicapan Department, Guatemala. It translates literally as “fine/well face-ness,” face meaning one’s aspect in general, not only physical appearance.     

Aboriginal fire regimes in Queensland, Australia: analysis of the explorers' record

ABSTRACT. The record of eighteenth and nineteenth century explorers' references to Aboriginal fire in Queensland was stratified according to fourteen vegetation typcs and season of fire. It was demonstrated that references to 'current' fire (i.e. flames or smoke) may not represent traditional Aboriginal activity and that many fires were lit to frighten or harm, to protect themselves from, or to signal to kinfolk the presence of the European intruders. Because of this interpretational difficulty the records to 'current' fire were treated separately from 'past' fire (i.e. burnt ground). The data were analysed as the number of observations per 100 km spent in each vegetation type for any one season to compensate for bias created by differing amounts of travel. The record suggests highest frequency of burning in grassland around the Gulf of Carpentaria, relatively high fire frequency of most coastal and subcoastal vegetation types and relatively infrequent burning of inland Queensland. The analysis indicates a propensity for winter and autumn fue relative to spring and summer fire in all vegetation types combined and in most individual vegetation types.     

Season of burning in the Sydney region: The historical records compared with recent prescribed burning

Abstract Prescribed burning is regularly carried out by land management agencies controlling bushland estate in the Sydney region. Despite the volume of research into the interrelationships between fire and Australian ecosystems, season of burning has received comparatively little attention and is poorly understood. This paper considers three aspects of season of burning in the Sydney region, which is located on the boundary of the spring and spring-summer fire season zones, identified by Luke and McArthur (1978). First the paper reviews research on the responses of biota to fire season to establish what is known of the ecological importance of fire season. The historical records of fires in the early period of Sydney's settlement (1788–1845) are then used to determine the seasonal pattern of fire in that period, and the extent to which these records reflect Aboriginal practices which contributed to the historic fire regime. Recent prescribed burning is sampled through the practices of two major land management authorities in northern Sydney (New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service and Hornsby Shire Council) to compare current practices with the early records and the ecological evidence. The results of the very limited ecological research on season is far from conclusive. Positive and negative effects have been shown for both autumn and spring with autumn-winter perhaps showing the greater degree of negative impacts, although it is often difficult to separate the effects of season from intensity. The historic records show a pattern of fires, including those lit by Aborigines, largely confined to the fire season of spring-early summer (August to January). By contrast 60% of prescribed burning in northern Sydney by the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service and Hornsby Council from 1980 to 1995 was conducted in autumn-winter (April to July). Prescribed burning in summer cannot be considered for practical reasons but timing of prescribed burning at other seasons is also largely dictated by pragmatic factors such as suitable weather and availability of personnel.     

Revegetation,restoration and reptiles in rural landscapes: Insights from long‐term monitoring programmes in the temperate eucalypt woodlands of south‐eastern Australia

Over the past decade, there has been a concerted effort to better understand the distribution and abundance of reptiles in agricultural landscapes and to specifically evaluate their response to revegetation (tree and shrub plantings) and habitat restoration in the wheat‐sheep belt of south‐eastern Australia. This article reviews the response of reptiles to revegetation and woodland management and provides ten insights and lessons that can be applied to help improve reptile conservation in temperate eucalypt woodlands and fragmented agricultural landscapes in Australia. The review focuses primarily on revegetation programmes conducted by Landcare and Greening Australia, and management interventions funded by Local Land Services in NSW and Catchment Management Authorities in Victoria.     

Farmers’ knowledge,perception and management of mango mealy bug,Drosicha mangiferae Green (Hemiptera: Monophlebidae), on Mangifera indica in Punjab,Pakistan

In 2004–05, during the December to February about 141 mango farmers were interviewed during peak activity of mango mealy bug in southern Punjab, Pakistan. The objective was to know the farmers’ knowledge, perceptions and practices in the management of mango mealy bug. Most of the farmers (94.33%) reported that Chaunsa variety (king of all mango varieties) was susceptible to mango and irrigation water was the major source of flare up of this pest. Basudin and Supracide were the most commonly used insecticides as 72.92 and 51.77 percent farmers gave positive response and grease bands were applied for the control of mango mealy bug by the majority of the respondents. Hundred percent yield losses was told by 22.7 percent respondents whereas 75 percent, 50 percent and 25 percent losses were reported by 39.7, 31.9 and 14.2 insecticidal spray did not show satisfaction to the respondents for the control of fertilized females of mango mealy bug coming down from the trees. Lack of knowledge about the pest, lack of money, adulterated and shortage of pesticides, lack of unity amongst farmers Further the growers’ views were tested in the field for confirmation and small land holdings were the main constraints for the control of mango mealy bug.