Abstract: Indigenous enterprises based on the commercial use of native wildlife have considerable potential in providing opportunities for income and independence for Indigenous people in remote areas in particular, enabling people to stay on country while using and building on traditional skills and knowledge. However, establishing indigenous wildlife enterprises faces a formidable array of hurdles involving the indigenous, state and Commonwealth policy, legislative and bureaucratic requirements. While the benefits of indigenous wildlife enterprises have been repeatedly endorsed in policy documents, major funding programs provide no or little support for them, and gaining the requisite licences and approvals can involve such delay, uncertainty, and administrative effort that fledgling initiatives are stifled at birth. Drawing on work carried out for the North Australia Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA), this talk discusses the potential of indigenous wildlife enterprises, outlines the obstacles they face, and suggests options for the way forward.

Rosie Cooney is a specialist in biodiversity policy/strategy research, analysis and development. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at ANU and the Institute of Environmental Studies at UNSW. Rosie holds degrees in Zoology and in Law from the ANU and a PhD in Zoology from Cambridge. Previously she worked for 6 years for leading international conservation organisations including IUCN The World Conservation Union, WWF, and Fauna & Flora International, and remains an active member of the IUCN Species Survival Commissions Sustainable Use Specialist Group. She has experience across many areas of biodiversity-related policy, with a strong emphasis on finding approaches that both meet human needs and conserve biodiversity. Particular areas of expertise are international wildlife trade; sustainable use and management of biological resources; the private keeping, captive breeding and translocation of wildlife; and dealing with uncertainty and applying the precautionary principle in conservation and natural resource management.