Integrating scientific and Aboriginal knowledge, practice and priorities to conserve an endangered rainforest ecosystem in the Kimberley region, northern Australia

Abstract

Australia’s diverse plants and animals evolved for tens of thousands of years with Aboriginal biocultural knowledge, land management and cultural practice. The interdependency of this biocultural knowledge and land management practice is still ecologically relevant today but is only recently being acknowledged in mainstream scientific conservation management processes and research. We present an example of cross-cultural collaborative management of the endangered monsoon vine thickets of the Dampier Peninsula, West Kimberley, northern Australia. These vine thickets occur as a network of over 80 patches in the lee of coastal dunes on the Peninsula, and are ecologically rich (containing 25% of Peninsula plant species) and culturally important for Peninsula Aboriginal groups for food, medicine, camping, cultural ceremonies and law. Adversely affected by land-clearing, weeds and wildfires, the vine thickets were listed as nationally endangered in 2013. The overlapping significance of the vine thickets by scientific and Aboriginal knowledge systems resulted in the formation of the Monsoon Vine Thicket Project in 2008 that aimed to document and conserve the ecosystem and its associated culture. The project has grown successfully over 13 years and has been guided by cross-cultural collaboration principles of respect for: cultural knowledge, practices and priorities; cultural knowledge holders; and long-term partnerships. The project has resulted in considerable outcomes in weed and fire management; seed collection, propagation and revegetation; community education; and the documentation, transfer and practice of Aboriginal biocultural knowledge. The greatest challenge for the project has been to better prioritise cultural activities, with examples provided of how this can increase benefits to both ecological conservation and cultural maintenance. The project’s strength was its cross-cultural approach and resultant respectful and trusting relationships that allowed for project flexibility and adaptation and for the collaborative partners to learn and develop capacity. The integration of cultural and scientific knowledge and practice resulted in greater conservation outcomes for monsoon vine thickets of the Dampier Peninsula, and we believe is an important cross-cultural model for ecosystem management elsewhere in Australia.