Antinuclear

Indigenous Canadians learning from Australian indigenous protected areas

The meetings come just a week before the World Parks Congress in Australia, which will feature programs and partnerships from around the world, including the Australian ranger/IPA model and Canadian indigenous protected area initiatives like Thaidene Nene.

Australians share indigenous protected area strategies with N.W.T.   Visits to Yellowknife and Lutsel K’e involved talking with Thaidene Nene negotiators By Rachel Zelniker, CBC News  Canada Nov 09, 2014  Daryl Lacey knows what it’s like when environmental concerns and development come head to head.

Twenty years ago, Lacey’s elders grew concerned about the impacts mining was having on their traditional territory. “Employees of the mine … were driving on our land, on sacred sites and where we didn’t want them to go,” he says.

Lacey is a member of the Yolngu people in Australia’s Northern Territory.

“My people set up Dhimurru as an organization so nothing gets damaged.”

Dhimurru is one of 60 Indigenous Protected Areas established in partnership with the Australian government that cover more than 48 million hectares across Australia.

Patrick O’Leary, who works with Pew Charitable Trust, an organization that helps aboriginal groups manage the protected areas, says creating a protected area is a voluntary decision by the traditional land owners.

“They don’t cede the land to anyone,” he says. “They don’t give it to anyone, or lease it to anyone. They manage the land.”

There is a keen interest in the success of Australian IPAs in the N.W.T., a territory rich in both ecological diversity and mineral resources. That’s why a team of Australian experts, including Lacey and O’Leary, shared best practices and ideas in Yellowknife and Lutsel K’e last week. The Lutsel K’e DeneFirst Nation is currently negotiating with the federal and territorial governments to establish a protected area. Thaidene Nene— or “land of the ancestors” — is a proposed Canadian national park reserve that covers 33,000 square kilometres on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake.

“In Australia, like in Canada, in remote areas, you have a lot of unemployment, a lot of social disadvantage, but yet people are really motivated around the land. And they’re good at managing — so the parallels are really strong,” says O’Leary.

“Indigenous people can lead, they can be really successful — and they can create jobs and support their families in their local area.”

Under an IPA agreement, traditional land owners enter into a contract with the Australian government to promote biodiversity and cultural resource conservation, and receive government funding in return………

The meetings come just a week before the World Parks Congress in Australia, which will feature programs and partnerships from around the world, including the Australian ranger/IPA model and Canadian indigenous protected area initiatives like Thaidene Nene. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/australians-share-indigenous-protected-area-strategies-with-n-w-t-1.2828603

November 10, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News