Project Leader: Mr Michael Storrs, Northern Land Council,
Darwin
Project 4.3.2 (3)
Summary | Progress |
Future directions | Project
team |
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Report on weed management problems in the Top
End. Not from here: plant invasions on Aboriginal lands of the
Top End
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Aboriginal people own 170,000 km 2 of land in the
Northern Land Council (NLC) region, yet their capacity to manage
rapidly emerging threats, such as weeds, is low. Aboriginal
landowners and their community-based agencies are often without the
physical, financial and technical resources to control weeds.
In 1998, a meeting of the project's Technical Advisory Committee
(TAC) was held to scope the work of the project. The TAC comprised
staff from the NLC, NTDPIF, Parks Australia North and the PWCNT.
The Caring for Country Unit (CFCU) of the NLC, in collaboration
with the Northern Territory University's Centre for Indigenous
Cultural and Natural Resource Management (CINCRM), then appointed
researcher Nick Smith, to document the weed situation on the
Aboriginal lands of the Top End.
The project's objectives project were to:
- to prepare an overview of the status of the current and
potential weed problems through consultation with land owners,
experts and practitioners
- to make an assessment of existing land management capacity
- to provide recommendations on survey requirements, data
collation and storage, training and resourcing and improved
collaboration between agencies.
The final document Not from here: plant invasions on Aboriginal
lands of the Top End was published by the TS-CRC in early 2001.
Written by Mr Nick Smith, the report received input from the CFCU,
as well as staff of the Australian Quarantine and Inspection
Service North Australian Quarantine Strategy (AQIS NAQS), the NT
Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries (DPIF), the Parks and
Wildlife Commission of the NT (PWCNT), the Northern Territory
University (NTU), CSIRO TERC, Parks Australia North and Greening
Australia.
The report contained some 30 major recommendations relating to
the requirements under upcoming legislation; the collection,
storage and mapping of weed data; weed management; training; and
community awareness. Please see below for information on ordering
the report.
The report is being used as the basis for the CFCU to develop a
weed-management strategy for all NLC lands. Case studies have shown
that carefully planned on-going management of weeds is more likely
to succeed than short-term, intensive control.
Tackling weeds in the sparsely populated Aboriginal lands of the
Top End necessitates a strategic approach. The over-arching goal of
the CFCU is to help Aboriginal communities develop formal
land-management programs, to deal with land-management issues such
as weeds. The emphasis for the weed management program will be
strategically based, focusing on the prevention of weed spread and
building the capacity of Aboriginal landowners to deal with weed
incursions before they become a major problem.
The report is currently in its second reprint.
Nominated Staff
Mr Michael Storrs, NLC CFCU
Mr Peter Cooke, NLC CFCU
Mr Nicholas Smith, NTU CINCRM
Collaborating Researchers
Mr Piers Barrow, Parks Australia North
Mr Colin Wilson, PWCNT
Mr Grant Flanagan, DPIF
Mr John Pitt, DPIF
Ms Kate Sanford-Readhead, DPIF
