Aboriginal values and management

To what extent are Aboriginal values, knowledge and people involved in forest management and decision-making, and how can this be strengthened in the future?

NSW forests provide significant and diverse connections to country for Aboriginal peoples, for example providing ownership and access to use, care for and manage land, as well as opportunities for employment, education and economic development.

The program has established an Aboriginal values working group and framework to guide this work and identify focus areas for Aboriginal-led, country-based assessments, monitoring, and research.

Fauna monitoring on Indigenous Protected Areas

A cross-tenure fauna monitoring pilot undertaken as part of the NSW Forest Monitoring and Improvement Program included Indigenous Protected Areas through a partnership with the Banbai Rangers and Tamworth Local Aboriginal Land Council. The pilot sought to provide species occupancy data across various forest tenures to establish state-wide occupancy modelling and compare to baseline (1990s) occupancy estimates. The Pilot also investigated other biodiversity indices, such as for key fauna.

More information on the Program can be found at this page.

As part of the Pilot, the Banbai Rangers undertook fauna monitoring on the Wattleridge Indigenous Protected Area. Ecologists trained the Banbai Rangers to deploy remote sensor cameras and two different acoustic monitoring devices to monitor wildlife at selected sites over two-weeks. Specialised computer-based fauna recognisers were also used to analyse audio data in collaboration with the Rangers. Camera images were uploaded to the Australian Museum’s DigiVol, for Rangers to access and identity fauna, along with other citizen scientists.

A video summary of the project and outcomes is available here.