2004
The North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance
(NAILSMA) through the Tropical Savannas Cooperative Research Centre
has signed a $3.8 Million contract with the Australian Government
to develop community driven approaches to sustainable management of
dugong and marine turtles across north Australia.
The project aims to have Traditional Owners from the Kimberley,
Top End of the Northern Territory, southern Gulf of Carpentaria,
Cape York and the Torres Strait regions collaborate on and
implement bottom-up approaches to managing north Australia’s
marine turtle and dugong.
“We want local people to take control and accept
responsibility for looking after the dugong and turtle populations
they depend on,” said Joe Morrison, Coordinator of
NAILSMA.
He argues that management of these animals should be based on
strong cultural relationships. “Turtle and dugong are totems
to many groups and a range of customary activities surround their
use and management.”
“We are not just talking about the status of wildlife
populations, but about the lives of remote communities. If you are
going to limit what people can catch and eat, then you must take
responsibility for inevitable impacts on Indigenous nutrition and
health, as well as increased impacts on other wildlife species. At
stake here are the sustainable livelihoods of Indigenous people,
just as much as biodiversity outcomes. How can we achieve both? The
answer surely has to be one driven by Indigenous people, who will
be the major beneficiaries from the sustainable management of these
animals” said Morrison.
Scientific research will continue to improve understandings of
the complex life histories of Marine Turtles and Dugong, but
research alone cannot ensure the survival of these populations.
This project will be driven by Indigenous people who hold large
bodies of intellectual knowledge about these species.
The project’s Technical Reference Group will include
scientists and government and natural resource management agencies
supporting Traditional Owners.
An important part of the project will be to ensure that
particular regional research findings are not incorrectly
extrapolated across northern Australia—which Mr Morrison
believes is the case with the National Recreational and Indigenous
Fishing Survey and the recent report on dugong hunting in the
Torres Strait.
“Unfortunately, we continue to see a retreat to the soft
option, with population studies in one part of the dugong’s
range being extrapolated to other regions in an entirely misleading
way,” he explained. “As well as hunting, it is
important to understand impacts of other factors like boat strikes,
shark nets, marine debris, poaching for crab bait, and polluted
catchments damaging seagrass eaten by the dugong and
turtle.”
Mr Morrison said that NAILSMA recognised that there were places
where unsustainable harvesting occurs outside customary practice.
“But NAILSMA takes the view that its time to get serious
about sustainable management. We now have some resources to support
and mobilise people who have a real stake in building robust
collaborative natural resource management systems”.
The NAILSMA Dugong and Marine Turtle Management Project is set
to begin in early 2005, and will be conducted as a partnership
between Indigenous communities and organisations, scientists,
wildlife managers and the Australian Government.
