Creating an ecologically sustainable northern Australia

Dr Rosemary HillNorthern Australia Program CoordinatorAustralian Conservation Foundation

Overview

_ Culture and nature: the importance of the north

_ Consequences of our current direction_ Sustainability: nature and culture_ Charting true sustainability

What makes the north important globally? - nature and culture

Outstanding natural values

_ rare, endemic, endangered animals - Gouldian finch, spotted cuscus, golden-backed tree rat

_ wetlands of national and international significance

_ the most extensive eucalpyt forests in the world

_ complex island archipelagoes around the sunken Kimberley coastline

Relatively good condition_ most intact tropical savanna landscapes in the

world_ less than 1% cleared in Cape York Peninsula

and the Kimberleys_ Biodiversity Audit findings:

_ health of nationally important wetlands generally good

_ mostly near pristine estuaries in northern Australia

Slower rate of mammal attrition

remember the highest mammal extinction rate

in the world, accounting for a third of global extinctions

Centre of cultural diversity• Part of WWF’s

map of global ethnolinguistic groups

• low density population (around 0.1 people per km2 cf 4 in southern Australia)

• Diversity of language, art, music, resources

Connections to country

_ “country is living entity with a yesterday, today and tomorrow, with a consciousness, and a will towards life”

_ places are travelled, known, described in song, dance, design, stories

_ fire, season, resources_ “country of the heart”

Keeping country strong

_ Indigenous land and cultural management agencies: Balkanu, NLC, KLC, Dhimurru, Bamanga Bubu Ngadimunku…

_ Resistance to industrialisation: the Mirrar people; Wuthathi people heroic struggles at Jabiluka and Shelburne

Consequences of our current direction

Northern Australia Forum eg.

_ acknowledges “clean green and tropical” as a key competitive advantage but recommends:• development of irrigated horticulture• intensification of beef production• mining and mineral production• clearing for plantation forestry

Consequences for the land

_ Declines in mammal numbers and granivorous birds….Why?• broadscale clearing- most important -

threatens specific ecosystems on CYP <1% clearing

• grazing, inappropriate fire regimes, feral animals and exotic weeds, water development (salinisation in the Ord)

• global climate change….

Gamba grass

Grazing impact

Consequences for the people

_ Australia-wide Indigenous peoples have the lowest economic status

_ Kimberley: apprehension rate for young Indigenous 3 times that for non-Indig.

_ Cape York: almost 25% of adults with signs of early kidney disease in one health check

Major development projects...

Kakadu: no improvement throughout the 80s despite $ from mine, Park

Sustainability: nature and culture

Creating sustainability

_ Passing onto future generations the same opportunities we enjoy

_ Natural assets: environmentally appropriate development

_ Cultural diversity, which is the basic fabric of human life: culturally appropriate development

Environmentally appropriate

_ Underpinned by best ecological science_ Avoid where possible the impacts identified

as most damaging: no broadscale clearing or major water impoundment/extraction

_ Control those impacts that can’t be eliminated: fire regimes, weeds and feral animals

_ Ecologically modern: renewables, efficient

Growth industries!

natural and cultural heritage-based tourism; cultural industries (arts) - fastest growing in the

world land and water management - international education

and training - knowledge industries commercial farming of wildlife rehabilitation of lands retired from grazing and

extractive uses such as mining renewable energy, efficient technologies .

Culturally appropriate_ Indigenous leadership_ NT Forum on Indigenous Econ. Devel.:

_ good governance_ cultural industries (largest employer of Indigenous people in NT)_ tourism_ wildlife farming_ caring for country, carbon accumulation through fire

management_ also interest in sustainable pastoralism and mining

_ Synergies here!

Charting sustainability - or how to steer in a different direction?

Get real!..generate hope_ Don’t start in the opposite direction:

recognise the north is marginal for pastoralism, agriculture and that large scale developments have not benefited broadly

_ focus on nature and culture_ support, respect, recognise Indigenous

leadership and communities_ protect our country - keep the trees, keep

the rivers wild, listen to the curlew call at night

_ base economy on nature and culture

Stimulate debate

_ ACF/Rainforest CRC “Appropriate Economic Models Roundtable”

_ Research support important – true partnerships between Indigenous knowledge and science

_ Government policy/regulation/incentives also critical

Creating sustainability

_ Places us at the forefront of the greatest questions of our time, achieving environmental protection and reconciliation with the First Nations peoples of our global community