Encounters on the frontier: Banteng in australia's northern territory (original) (raw)
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Conservation Biology, 2005
Drawing on field-based interviews with the Jawoyn people, we found that these indigenous people categorize water buffalo ( Bubalus bubalis) as an important food source (tucker), view horses ( Equus caballus) as bush pets, and consider pigs ( Sus scrofa) a threat to their lands. As a result, Jawoyn people want more water buffalo in the park, have high tolerance of environmental damage caused by horses, and are open to the idea that pig population densities should be reduced. Jawoyn also advocate an adaptive and participatory approach to feral animal control so that the consequences of any management actions can be properly understood before irrevocable change occurs. These findings highlight one example of how indigenous people's ecological knowledge has adapted in response to changing landscapes and community aspirations. Co-management strategies that aim to incorporate the dynamics of indigenous people's views need to start with issues on which there is agreement between different groups and take a cautious approach to joint exploration of more contentious issues. That approach should include ongoing and on-site monitoring so that the consequences of management actions can be properly understood and comprehensively negotiated by all parties. Key Words: adaptive management, bush pets, bush tucker, co-management, feral animal damage, indigenous ecological knowledge Alimento, Mascotas y Amenazas en el Matorral: Manejo Cooperativo de Animales Cimarrones en el Parque Nacional Kakadu en Australia
Feral pigs (Sus scrofa) are a major vertebrate pest in Australia and have been commonly referred to as an environmental and agricultural pest. However, perceptions about pigs and their impacts may vary from person to person, particularly Aboriginal Australians, who have different cultural backgrounds and worldviews. Such variation in perceptions makes the pest status of pigs ambiguous. This paper illustrates Aboriginal rangers' perceptions of feral pigs and their impacts in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of North Queensland, Australia. There were differences in the values of feral pigs among Aboriginal communities, depending on the socio-economic context. Different values attached to feral pigs pose a management challenge of how to treat pigs: as a resource or a pest.
Environmental Management, 2006
Should north Australia's extensive populations of feral animals be eradicated for conservation, or exploited as a rare opportunity for Indigenous enterprise in remote regions? We examine options for a herd of banteng, a cattle species endangered in its native Asian range but abundant in Garig Gunak Barlu National Park, an Aboriginal land managed jointly by traditional owners and a conservation agency in the Northern Territory of Australia. We reflect on the paradoxes that arise when trying to deal effectively with such complex and contested issues in natural resource management using decision-support tools (ecological-economic models), by identifying the trade-offs inherent in protecting values whilst also providing incomes for Indigenous landowners.
A Zoological Revolution, 2002
The objective of this forum was to assess revolutionary conservation proposals that aspire to reform current constraints on using native fauna as a replacement for the traditional European models of land use. Gordon Grigg outlines the history of the ideas that underpin this radical proposal. Mike Archer argues that eating our native fauna is a better conservation option than the current paradigm of an English agricultural landscape that excludes native fauna and is composed almost entirely of introduced plant and animal species. The trade-off for the retirement of sheep from much of the land is that we consume kangaroo and other native species in order to create a market for indigenous products. Mike Archer and Paul Hopwood present and defend another contentious thesis, namely that native mammals should become pets, and thus provide Australians with the opportunity to get to know their own fauna.This proposal has its critics in Karen Viggers and David Lindenmayer, who address a long list of serious matters concerning the keeping of native mammals as companions. Penny Figgis presents her concern that Archer has overlooked the fundamental value of national parks as repositories of biodiversity in his grand vision of a wild landscape. Harry Recher's position is the most challenging. He remains concerned that these proposals do not address the fundamental problems of the land degradation crisis.
Convergence of Culture, Ecology, and Ethics: Management of Feral Swamp Buffalo in Northern Australia
Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics, 2009
This paper examines the identity of Asian swamp buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) from different value orientations. Buffalo were introduced into Northern (Top End) Australia in the early nineteenth century. A team of transdisciplinary researchers, including an ethicist, has been engaged in field research on feral buffalo in Arnhem Land over the past three years. Using historical documents, literature review, field observations, interviews with key informants, and interaction with the Indigenous land owners, an understanding of the diverse views on the scientific, cultural, and economic significance of buffalo was obtained. While the diverse stakeholders in buffalo exploitation and management have historically delivered divergent value orientations on the nature of the human–buffalo relationship, we argue that over time there is the possibility of values and ethical convergence. Such convergence is possible via transdisciplinary and transcultural agreement on the value stances that constitute the construction of the being or identity of buffalo in the face of the overwhelming need to manage population density and gross numbers.
Hypatia, 2022
Conservation scholarship and policies are concerned with the viability of idealized ecological communities constructed using human metrics. We argue that the discipline of conservation assumes an epistemology and ethics of human sovereignty/dominion over animals that leads to violent actions against animals. We substantiate our argument by deconstructing a case study. In the context of recent bushfires in Australia, we examine recent legislation passed by the parliament of New South Wales (NSW), policy documents, and academic articles by conservationists that support breaking communities of horses and/or killing 4,000 horses in Kosciuszko National Park (KNP), NSW. Theoretically framing our deconstruction against human sovereignty over animals and anthropocentrism, we affirm an intersectional, ecofeminist approach that values animals as relational and vulnerable agents. We uncover first the epistemic violence of categorizing horses as “pests,” and the anthropocentric nature of recent...