Exploring Aboriginal People\u27s connection to country to strengthen human-nature theoretical perspectives

Purpose Aboriginal people across Australia have diverse practices, beliefs and knowledges based on thousands of generations of managing and protecting their lands (Country). The intimate relationship Aboriginal people have with their Country is explored in this chapter because such knowledge is important for building insight into the relationship between social and ecological systems. Often in research Aboriginal views have been marginalised from discussions focused on their lands to the detriment of ecosystems and human health. This chapter aims to understand if such marginalisation is evident in Western human–nature relationship discourses.Approach This chapter provides a critical literature review which examines whether Aboriginal people’s diverse understanding of their ecosystems have been incorporated into human–nature theories using the biophilia hypothesis as a starting point. Other concepts explored include solastalgia, topophilia and place.Findings Critiques of these terminologies in the context of Aboriginal people’s connection to Country are limited but such incorporation is viewed in the chapter as a possible mechanism for better understanding human’s connection to nature. The review identified that Aboriginal people’s relationship to Country seems to be underrepresented in the human–nature theory literature.Value This chapter emphasises that the integration of Aboriginal perspectives into research, ecological management and policy can provide better insight into the interrelationships between social and ecological systems

Co-management and protected area management: Achieving effective management of a contested site, lessons from the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA)

Marine protected management has gained acceptance as a way forward to achieve enhanced biodiversity outcomes. Simultaneously, co-management has gathered momentum as a mechanism to incorporate indigenous cultural aspirations within environmental management domains. Each management process has its own methodologies; when the two models intersect, they present a number of challenges to overall management outcomes. We review the journey of an indigenous co-management initiative within a marine protected area (MPA), the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA), Australia, to explore how different management paradigms intersect with both negative and positive results. We argue that lessons learned from this initiative will help participants to adapt and innovate, so as to implement effective on ground management despite the region being a contested site.Melissa Nursey-Bray and Phillip Ris

Does co-management facilitate adaptive capacity in times of environmental change? Insights from fisheries in Australia

This article assesses how federal and state government approaches to fisheries co-management in Australia facilitate adaptive capacity to environmental change. Drawing on the Adaptive Capacity Wheel, co-management approaches were assessed in terms of their capacity to: (1) encourage the involvement of a variety of actors, perspectives, and solutions; (2) enable actors to continuously learn and improve governance institutions; (3) allow and motivate stakeholders to self-organise, design and reform their institutions; (4) mobilise leadership qualities of social actors; (5) mobilise resources for decision-making and implementation; and (6) support principles of fair governance. Results show that federal government approaches have been limited in facilitating adaptive capacity. Conversely, co-management approaches in South Australia have gone part way to facilitate such capacity. Ultimately, this study underscores how broad characteristics of fisheries management arrangements facilitate adaptive capacity to improve success of fisheries co-management in responding to environmental change.Melissa Nursey-Bray, Pedro Fidelman, Mensah Owus

Having a yarn: The importance of appropriate engagement and participation in the development of Indigenous driven environmental policy, Queensland, Australia

Across Australia, Indigenous peoples have responsibility for managing country4. Increasingly, policy partnerships between management agencies, mining companies, conservation groups and the pastoral industry are being brokered with traditional owners of land and sea. The successful outcome of these policies necessitates the implementation of participative and culturally appropriate and professional processes of engagement with Indigenous communities. This includes addressing local modes of governance and community relations. This paper compares two Indigenous resource management initiatives with a view to promoting an understanding of the concept of engagement and participative practices in Indigenous communities. It argues that engagement processes in policy need to go beyond ‘having a yarn’ and address deeper issues of social justice and equity in order to achieve conservation outcomes. It concludes with a framework for policy engagement based on the principles of social justice and biodiversity protection.Melissa Nursey-Bray, Arnold Wallis, Phillip Ris

Social Contexts and Customary Fisheries: Marine Protected Areas and Indigenous Use, Australia

Worldwide, the implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs) offers opportunities for delivering fisheries and biodiversity management objectives. In Australia however, the primary function of an MPA is that of biodiversity conservation. Nonetheless, the management of Indigenous customary fisheries is one area where fisheries and biodiversity issues converge. This article examines the relationship between biodiversity and customary fisheries in an MPA context by investigation of the role and importance of Indigenous social contexts. Using case study examples from Australia, I explore the role of Indigenous social contexts in two dimensions: (i) management of traditional fisheries and (ii) Indigenous contribution to fisheries within an MPA. Findings demonstrate two narratives concerning social contexts, one of recognition and the other concerning Indigenous involvement in management. I conclude with a survey of Indigenous management initiatives within MPAs. The article ends with a discussion of the utility of understanding social contexts in any marine management endeavour, specifically other social contexts within an MPA.Melissa Nursey-Bra

Adaptive capacity of coastal resource management institutions in Cambodia, Vietnam and Australia

Responding to environmental change requires a better understanding of how institutions—the rules and norms that structure human interactions—enable society to adapt to impacts of such change. By drawing on the Adaptive Capacity Wheel framework and empirical cases of coastal resource management decentralisation in the context of the Peam Krasaop Wildlife Sanctuary (Cambodia), Tam Giang Lagoon (Viet Nam) and the state of South Australia (Australia), this study examines how institutions support adaptive capacity. The characteristics of institutions analysed both facilitated and constrained adaptive capacity, depending on the enabling and disabling conditions at play. Despite the constraints, institutions have, to a certain extent, enabled actors to: organise themselves; learn and improve resource management; mobilise leadership, resources and authority; and, make progress towards improved governance. These illustrate the creation and mobilisation of adaptive capacity, which resulted in positive outcomes in responding to environmental change. In some of the cases studied, reinforcing enabling conditions of adaptive capacity will require creating livelihood alternatives, alleviating poverty, reducing inequality, and building human and social capital.Pedro Fidelman, Truong Van Tuyen, Kim Nong, Melissa Nurseybray, Piseth Keoc, Mensah Owus

Toward operationalizing resilience concepts in Australian marine sectors coping with climate change

We seek to contribute to the scholarship on operationalizing resilience concepts via a working resilience indicator framework. Although it requires further refinement, this practical framework provides a useful baseline for generating awareness and understanding of the complexity and diversity of variables that impinge on resilience. It has potential value for the evaluation, benchmarking, monitoring, and reporting of marine system resilience. The necessity for such a framework is a consequence of the levels of complexity and uncertainty associated with climate change and other global change stressors in marine social-ecological systems, and the problems involved in assessing their resilience. There is a need for: (1) methodologies that bring together knowledge from diverse sources and disciplines to investigate the complexity and uncertainty of interactions between climate, ocean, and human systems and (2) frameworks to facilitate the evaluation and monitoring of the social-ecological resilience of marine-dependent sectors. Accordingly, our main objective is to demonstrate the virtues of combining a case study methodology with complex adaptive systems approaches as a means to improve understanding of the multifaceted dynamics of marine sectors experiencing climate change. The resilience indicator framework, the main product of the methodology, is developed using four case studies across key Australian marine biodiversity and resource sectors already experiencing impacts from climate and other global changes. It comprises a set of resilience dimensions with a candidate set of abstract and concrete resilience indicators. Its design ensures an integrated approach to resilience evaluation.Julie L. Davidson, Ingrid E. van Putten, Peat Leith, Melissa Nursey-Bray, Elizabeth M. Madin and Neil J. Holbroo