Land and sea management activity

Sea country

In 2002 the Djelk Rangers extended their area of management to include sea country. Today the Djelk Rangers have a dedicated sea unit that undertakes activities over an area of approximately 2 million hectares of ocean and islands off the coast. Sea management activity focuses on protecting local natural and cultural resources while also significantly contributing to border and bio-security protection for wider Australia. Sea country work includes monitoring and reporting of fishing vessels to NT Fisheries and undertaking IFFV patrols for Customs as well as monitoring turtle and dugong habitats.

Fee for service work

The Djelk Rangers are involved in a number of fee for service activities for the AQIS. These include monitoring invertebrates, marine pests, vertebrate diseases and landing sites as well as monitoring and removing marine debris. The Australian Government's recognition of the important work that the Djelk rangers have been undertaking is reflected in the recent service level agreement between the BAC and Customs. The BAC is the first indigenous organisation to sign a service level agreement with Customs. This followed the successful work undertaken by the Djelk rangers in locating numerous IFFVs and the strenuous lobbying undertaken by BAC for the Australian Government to formally acknowledge and pay for the Djelk Rangers coastal surveillance patrols. This has meant that there are now additional jobs unsubsidised by CDEP and funding to cover surveillance costs (BAC 2007).

The Djelk Rangers are also now partners in the Carpenteria Ghost Net Project.

Feral animals

Like many areas of the Northern Territory, the impact of feral animals on wetlands and biodiversity is significant. Feral animals provide a convenient source of meat for people living on country and are valued for this. It is difficult for traditional owners, without cost benefit analysis information, to make decisions about managing feral animal populations. The Djelk Rangers spend considerable time and effort controlling feral animals, such as buffalo and pigs. The density of the buffalo population is clearly evident. For example, in 2007 over 300 buffalo were destroyed in two days at one location. The management of buffalo remains a difficult management issue for the Djelk Rangers. With many traditional owners valuing buffalo as a source of meat, they are unsupportive of systematic control such as aerial culling. In response to this management challenge, the rangers are currently developing a bounty system for buffalo. The aim of this bounty is to offer an incentive to traditional owners to reduce buffalo densities on their land while supporting their access to and stewardship of country.

Throughout 2009 the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) has been working with the Djelk Rangers to develop and implement a billabong monitoring project to quantify the impacts of feral animals (buffalo and pigs) on billabong health. Twelve billabongs are now being monitored in the early and late dry seasons using Cybertracker data collection sequences for water quality measurements and ground based indicators of ecological health. This information will be linked with Djelk buffalo cull data to demonstrate the ecological services provided by the rangers. 

Fire

The Djelk Rangers are involved with traditional owners undertaking customary fire management such as ecological burning and fuel reduction burning around communities.

The Djelk Rangers have also played a central role in the West Arnhem Fire Management Project (WALFA). This is a partnership between Aboriginal Traditional Owners and Indigenous representative organisations, Darwin Liquefied Natural Gas (DLNG), and the Northern Territory Government. The partnership was formed to implement strategic fire management across 28,000 sq km of Western Arnhem Land for the purposes of offsetting some of the greenhouse gas emissions from the Liquefied Natural Gas plant at Wickham Point in Darwin Harbour.

The project aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from this area by adopting effective fire management practices in what has been mostly unoccupied and unmanaged land. While the primary aim of the partnership for the non-indigenous partners is to offset greenhouse gas emissions, the primary aim of traditional owners has been to use the project to reconnect with country and undertake cultural and natural resource management in this region of unique biodiversity.

To achieve the greenhouse gas offsets, traditional owners' land management organisations (Wardekken, Jawoyn, Djelk, Adjumarllarl and Mimal Rangers), working closely with non-Indigenous partners such as Bushfires NT and Tropical Savannas CR, implement strategic fire management from early in the dry season to reduce the size and extent of unmanaged wildfires and measure the greenhouse gas offsets.

This project does not generate income from carbon trading; it is a fee for service arrangement in which traditional owners are paid for fire management to produce greenhouse gas offsets. However, the process and accounting practices used to abate greenhouse emissions in this project will qualify for carbon trading when it comes on-stream.

Regular early dry season burn-offs now occur and traditional owners have consistently achieved the emission abatement targets. The WALFA Agreement created a long-term fee-for-service funding stream which enabled the employment of rangers in full-time positions. A core group of these rangers is now qualified to deliver aerial controlled burning (ACB) from helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. The WALFA Project received the 'Innovative Solutions to Climate Change' Award at the 2007 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes. It is important to note that the Community Development and Employment Program (CDEP) was instrumental in assisting this project get off the ground.

The WALFA project was a critical 'two-way' (valuing Indigenous ecological knowledge and science equally). Research and management partnership as it led the way in demonstrating the potential alliances between private enterprise government, Indigenous and non-Indigenous scientists and land managers. It was also important in establishing a pilot model that clearly demonstrates the importance of people on country for fire management across the tropical savannas of Northern Australia. 

Weeds

Weeds are an on-going environmental threat in the Djelk land management area, especially in townships and along roads, tracks and infrastructure corridors such as the optic fibre line. Several Weeds of National Significance are already present in (Mimosa pigra), or are highly suited to (Hymenachne amplexicaulis, Cabomba , Salvinia molesta)  the Djelk management area. For more information on these species see the Weeds of National Significance website.

However tropical grassy weeds are considered by traditional owners as an equally significant threat in their land management area. Many of these species are declared as significant weeds by the Northern Territory Government. Grassy weeds of main concern in the Djelk area are escaped pasture species including the Mission grasses (Pennisetum polystachion and P. pedicellatum) and of potential concern: Gamba grass (Andropogon gayanus), Grader grass (Themeda quadrivalvis), Guinea grass (Panicum maximum). The Djelk Rangers are actively spraying these weeds and have developed a draft Grassy Weed Management Plan with CAEPR, NT Government Weeds Branch and neighbouring ranger groups.

Wildlife utilisation

Through the development and support of the Djelk Wildlife Enterprise BAC and the Djelk Rangers have focused on wildlife utilisation and management as a potential avenue for greater regional engagement with the market economy. This is achieved by providing an employment program that incorporates education, training and collaboration with researchers, is culturally and socially appropriate, and focuses on commercialisation of wildlife harvesting to provide environmental and economic outcomes and benefits for the community. The core focus of this activity is now focused on the collection and incubation of saltwater crocodile eggs for on-selling to commercial crocodile farms and the collection and incubation of long-necked turtle eggs for sale to the aquarium trade. These and other wildlife utilisation activities begun by the rangers now operate as a stand-alone enterprise the Djelk Wildlife Enterprises (see below). 

Linkages with schools

The Djelk Rangers supports a junior ranger program that operates out of the Maningrida High School.

The Djelk Rangers are currently involved as industry partners in another research project with CAEPR based at The ANU in Canberra. This research is looking at the potential for Indigenous land and sea management programs to help re-engage Indigenous students in the educational process. The project is innovative in looking at custom-based knowledge and practise to articulate with growing efforts to develop links between school and work through vocational training in school. It is envisaged that the development of new land and sea management programs and activities for young Indigenous people will encourage literacy and numeracy development through programs that are culturally and contextually meaningful and engaging for young Indigenous people who struggle to see the relevance of continuing their formal education. Such programs have the potential to provide structured work-based learning activities and experiences that are transferable to other employment and study opportunities outside the land and sea management area (BAC 2008). 

Indigenous Protected Area

The Djelk Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) covers some 6,732 sq km of Aboriginal Freehold Land in central northern Arnhem Land. Straddling coastal and subtropical landscapes from islands to estuaries, wet lands, rivers, and monsoonal rainforests all within the much wider tropical savanna. The Djelk IPA was declared on September 2009 by the Hon. Peter Garrett, Minister for the Environment.

The Djelk IPA is contiguous with the Warddeken IPA, declared at the same time, to the west where they will share a common 50 km border and a narrow 286 km overlap (representing customary integration of adjoining clans responsibilities for country). These two IPAs cover some of Australia's most biodiverse regions and will exceed the area of both Kakadu and Nitmuluk National Parks. These two IPAs with their strong cultural and natural values have significantly added to Australia's National Reserve System (BAC 2008). 

Emerging enterprises

Wildlife utilisation

An emerging enterprise that has grown out of the land and sea management program is Djelk Wildlife Enterprises (DWE) established in 2006. DWE aims to concentrate on the sale of specific species of reptiles and spiders (tarantula spiders - Selenotholus sp.) for which there is a sustainable supply on Aboriginal lands and a market. DWE will employ traditional owners in the collection of specimens.

The BAC envisages that the venture will have economic, cultural and environmental benefits. This will occur thorough DWE providing opportunities for traditional owners to earn income from their clan estates and by utilising their ecological knowledge and skill in the collection process. The economic incentive will assist traditional owners with cultural responsibilities to care for country and provide a vehicle for the intergenerational transfer of ecological knowledge. Fauna identification and monitoring is an important component to the enterprise and will contribute to scientific knowledge of the region's biodiversity. A close working relationship is maintained with the Djelk rangers who share expertise, knowledge and resources where the programs overlap (BAC 2007).

Australian Government policy has not caught up with Aboriginal developments in the area of wildlife utilisation. The DWE is still faced with what they describe as cumbersome government regulations that impede the sale of native wildlife (BAC 2007). An example of these barriers can be seen when Aboriginal people were supportive of the development of conservation hunting (hunting for a fee) focussed on saltwater crocodiles. Supported by a strong management plan developed by the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Service to underpin sustainability and animal welfare issues the then Minister for the Environment (Ian Campbell) declined, with little explanation to Indigenous communities, to approve the conservation hunting component of the plan. This ensured the conservation hunting market was not available to Indigenous Australians who wanted to sustainably utilise their saltwater crocodile resources to support people living on country.

DWE have developed a close working relationship with NT Parks and Wildlife who are assisting to streamline policy so that emerging wildlife utilisation enterprises can provide another opportunity for people on country to derive income through the sustainable utilisation of their wildlife (see Altman and Cochrane 2003).

For more information regarding the DWE see CAEPR Working Paper No. 63/2010, 'The viability of wildlife enterprises in remote Indigenous communities of Australia: A case study'.