Analysis of Legislation and Policies Affecting the Development of Indigenous Wildlife-based Enterprises Project team: Stephen Garnett, Bruce Campbell, Donna Craig, Peter Whitehead, Sean Kerins, Beau Austin Wildlife-based enterprise development is subject to a range of regulatory constraints. This project seeks support for an APAI to analyse the legal and policy framework governing such enterprises, which are the only realistic potential source of income for many remote Indigenous communities. Northern Territory, Commonwealth and International law and policy will be reviewed broadly and then their implications tested in two case studies, one based on products derived from a protected animal, the estuarine crocodile, the other on an endemic plant, the Kakadu plum. Top-down and bottom-up analysis will be integrated into recommendations to governments on maximising legal consistency and streamlining such enterprise development.
Bamboo Based Development and Poverty Alleviation in Guangxi Province, ChinaProject team: Nick Hogarth, Bruce Campbell, Brian Belcher This project will support and contribute towards the larger CIFOR/International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) project titled: “Forests that Benefit the Poor: Linking Income Generation to Influence among Forest Communities in Asia”. The overall goal of the project is to support more resilient livelihoods for poor and socially disadvantaged women and ethnic minorities dependent on forest resources in Asia. The project will contribute to PEN, contributing data to that of different geographical regions, forest types, forest tenure regimes, levels of poverty, infrastructure and population density. This global and country level analysis of the role of forests in poverty alleviation will build a knowledge base to help formulate national and global policy, build capacity among those involved and assist conservation and development agencies better achieve ‘pro-poor’ outcomes.
Improving the Livelihoods Importance of Bali Cattle in Indonesia Project team: Kerstin Zander Partner: Indonesian Centre for Animal Research and Development in Bogor Funding: CDU Research Panel Grant Bali Cattle are a critical part of the economy in Indonesia. However, although well-adapted to a harsh climate for which they have been bred for generations, their number and genetic vitality is declining. Yet their value is potentially increasing, both for meat products in a market of increasing affluence elsewhere in Asia and as traction animals given the price of fuel. Unusually there is a source of original genetic material in a feral population here in Australia – the banteng of Coburg Peninsula which could have traits needed to revitalize the breed. This project aims to value the genetic traits of Bali cattle among livestock-keepers in Indonesia, identifying those features that could benefit from importing Australian genetic stock and their monetary value.
Natural Resource Management and Enterprise Development: Can They Improve Indigenous Livelihoods?Project team: Prof. Owen Stanley (lead Chief Investigator, CDU), Ramadhani Achdiawan (CIFOR), Natasha Stacey (CDU) , Ram Vemuri (CIFOR), Julian Gorman (CDU) , Arild Angelsen (Norwegian University of Life Sciences), Sam Pickering (CDU), Michael Honer (CDU), Ermi Koeslulat (Universitas Gadjah Mada) This project will investigate: (a) the nature of dependence of people on natural resources, in two contrasting Indigenous situations (Northern Australia and Eastern Indonesia); (b) the constraints to and opportunities for livelihood improvement from natural resource management and natural product enterprise development; (c) strategies for improving livelihoods based on natural resources. The research will contribute fundamental knowledge on the economics and behaviour of people dependent on natural resources, and thus provide concrete strategies on how natural resources can contribute to poverty alleviation agendas. Improved understanding of poverty should ensure more effective development assistance, thereby reducing pressures on Australia’s borders.
Wildlife-based Business Development in the Northern Territory Project team: Julian Gorman Facilitation of local wildlife-based enterprises is essential if these are to overcome the many barriers that prevent their success. This jointly funded position was set up in response to requests for help from remote Aboriginal communities to navigate the process of establishing and sustaining successful small business based on the use of wildlife. Most work to date has been in establishing community aspirations and disseminating information in from current research.
Recently completed researchBuilding Local Capacity of Bajo Fishermen, Eastern Indonesia for Whale Shark Conservation Project team: Natasha Stacey, Sam Pickering with Mark Meekan (AIMS). Recent social and ecological research findings have shown that the migration pathways of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) visiting Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia include the eastern Indonesian and Timor Leste region. This research project aims to confirm the presence of whale sharks in the Timor-Roti area through engagement of local fishers in the documentation of whale shark visitations. The project will contribute vital information for considering the feasibility of establishing a whale shark ecotourism venture and for developing collaborative conservation and management measures for whale shark populations moving between Australia and Indonesia.
Enterprise Development, Value Chains and Evaluation of Non-timber Forest Products for Agroforestry Systems in Eastern IndonesiaProject team: Tony Cunningham, Natasha Stacey, Sam Pickering A high proportion of households in Indonesia’s poorest province, Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), depend significantly on the availability of two categories of natural resources. Those are a) near-shore marine resources and b) products from forests, woodlands and agroforestry systems (often referred to as non-timber forest products - NTFP’s). This project will focus on the link between livelihoods and local enterprises based on NTFP’s.
Exchange, Use and Conservation of Animal Genetic ResourcesProject team: Sipke Hiemstra, Adam Drucker, Nils Louwaars, Kor Oldenbrook, Morten Tvedt, Irene Hoffman and Taylor Brown The aim of the project is to support informed decision-making by exploring a range of policy and regulatory options related to the exchange, sustainable use and conservation of farm animal genetic resources (FAnGR). Such options are explored through an analysis of the current situation regarding exchange, use and conservation, and through the elaboration of a range of scenarios and their potential implications related to future globalisation, climate change and environmental degradation, the occurrence of new epidemic animal diseases, as well as further developments in the field of biotechnology. An analysis of the implications of these scenarios, should they occur in practice, is carried out through a global assessment of the experiences, interests, objectives and views of a wide range of stakeholders, including at the global level and in specific case study developing and developed countries.
Production for Marginal Lands: Sustainable Indigenous Enterprise Development and Commercial Use of WildlifeProject team: Peter Whitehead, Julian Gorman This project consisted of three stages. The first was the creation of a data base of animal products utilized by Indigenous communities, including an assessment of their commercial potential. In the second stage case studies of enterprises utilizing wildlife were evaluated to determine which factors were important to successful enterprise development. The results of the study were presented at a workshop where Aboriginal people involved in wildlife-based enterprises gathered to share their experiences and discuss issues affecting enterprise development.
Review of the Dhimurru Aboriginal Land Corporation’s Sea Country Management Plan in North East Arnhem Land (Yolnguwu Monuk Gapu Plan of Management)Project team: Merrilyn Wasson, Ilse Kiessling, Karen Edyvane The purpose of the review is to promote the economic and traditional rights of the Yolngu people, represented by the Dhimurru Corporation, to the customary management of their traditional sea domain through reform to policy and legislation, including appropriate zoning arrangements.
Review of the Terminalia ferdinandiana Industry DevelopmentProject team: Tony Cunningham, Julian Gorman, Stephen Garnett, David Boehme, Kim Courtenay Terminalia ferdinandiana is potentially the base for an important wildlife-based industry. However, while economic and agronomic potential is high, a variety of social and policy impediments currently make it unlikely that these benefits will accrue to those on whose land it grows. This project aims to understand these impediments and develop ways of overcoming them.
Timber Harvest Management for the Aboriginal Arts Industry: Socioeconomic, Cultural and Ecological Determinants of Sustainability in a Remote Community ContextProject team: Tony Griffiths, Jennifer Koenig, Jon Altman (CAEPR) The Aboriginal arts industry is one of few development opportunities for Indigenous people in remote communities. Yet there has been limited research that has combined assessment of the social, ecological and economic determinants of arts production sustainability. This project addresses this issue with reference to the rapidly expanding manufacture of sculptures.
Wild Harvest of Cycad arnhemica in Arnhem LandProject team: Tony Griffiths, Julian Gorman The commercial wild harvest of plants is a flexible form of employment suited to Aboriginal people living in remote communities. The global commercial trade in cycad products has been restricted after populations where threatened by habitat destruction and unsustainable collection for the ornamental plant trade, but the Northern Territory government has established a Cycad Management Program that allows the wild harvest of cycad under regulation. The results of this study indicated that wild harvest of juvenile stems of C. arnhemica, will have minimal impact on wild populations, provided that restrictions on repeat harvesting of the same location are applied.Griffith, A.D., Schult, H.J. and Gorman, J. (in press) Wild harvest of Cycad arnhemica (Cycadaceae): impact on survival, recruitment and growth in Arnhem Land, northern Australia.
|
