Global community booklet Indigenous People and Invasive Species Perceptions, management, challenges and uses 1 Contents Introduction p. 1 1. Yellomundee Firesticks and Aboriginal Bushcare treating Lantana and p. 2 African Lovegrass with cultural fire, Australia 2. Invasive pest attack in North Bengal, India p. 4 3. Managing Weeds on Bunuba Country in the Kimberley, Western Australia p. 6 4. Non-native mangrove (Nypa fruticans) invasion in the Gulf of Guinea p. 8 5. Feral herbivores in central Australia p. 10 6. CoastBusters, United Kingdom p. 12 7. Allowing tradition, not weeds, to flourish in Kakadu p. 14 National Park, northern Australia 8. Wular Lake management and Alligator weed: Perspectives of local people, p. 16 India 9. Weeds, feral animals, fire and research at Wattleridge and Tarriwa p. 18 Kurrukun Indigenous Protected Areas, Australia 10. Indigenous invasive plant management in northern Australia p. 20 11. Weeds and Native Title in Australia p. 22 12. Traditional Aboriginal values and Gamba Grass invasion of the remediated p. 24 Rum Jungle mine site, Australia 13. Feral animals in south eastern Arnhem Land, Australia p. 26 14. Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum) invasion in wetlands of New p. 28 Zealand This booklet is an output of the 2014 World Parks Congress Indigenous people and Invasive Species Symposium held in Sydney, Australia. Thanks to Helen Donald (SA Government for graphic design assistance). Further contributions are welcome. Please contact Emilie Ens [email protected] Copyright is held by the authors of each case study. Citation: Ens, E., Fisher, J. and Costello, O. (Editors) (2015) Indigenous people and invasive species: Perceptions, management, challenges and uses. IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management Community Booklet Ecosystems and Invasive Species Thematic Group Introduction Emilie Ens1, Judy Fisher2 Oliver Costello3 1 Department of Environmetal Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia. Email: [email protected] 2 IUCN CEM Theme Leader Ecosystems and Invasive Species; Independent Ecologist. Email: [email protected] 3 Firesticks Advisor, Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Australia. Email: [email protected] This booklet was compiled as a product of the Indigenous People and Invasive Species Symposium in the Respecting Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge and Culture Session of the 2014 World Parks Congress, Sydney. Although invited, not all speakers in the symposium produced a written article for this publication. Some articles did not feature in the symposium; however, were accepted here to increase global representation. Further submissions are encouraged to maintain this publication as an ongoing compilation of articles on this topic so feel free to contribute! We also note that we have consciously not overly modified the content of submissions to allow for freedom of expression of contributors. Modifications were mainly aesthetic to facilitate a cohesive format and visual effect. This is not a scientific publication and hence, standards in scientific writing were not enforced. The booklet was intended to be produced with visual appeal, minimal text and as a community targeted publication to enhance readership. The IUCN Standard on Indigenous Peoples (January 2015) adopted the definition of “Indigenous Peoples” from the “statement of coverage” contained in the ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries. This definition includes: • Peoples who identify themselves as Indigenous in strict sense; • Tribal peoples whose social, cultural and economic conditions distinguish them form other sections of the national community, and whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions or by species laws or regulations; • Traditional peoples not necessarily called Indigenous or tribal but who share the same characteristics of social, cultural, and economic conditions that distinguish them from other sections of the national community, whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions, and whose livelihoods are closely connected to ecosystems and their goods and services. Congruous with the IUCN aim of promoting the cultural identity, resilience, health and nature- based livelihoods of Indigenous people, the focus of the Indigenous People and Invasive Species World Parks Congress symposium was to promote the different perceptions, management, challenges and uses of Invasive Species by Indigenous Peoples. We by no means state that this booklet is comprehensive but contains those submissions made to us. We also take no responsibility or claim for intellectual property contained in the articles, this is held by the authors. Yellomundee Firesticks Den Barber and Paul Glass New South Wales National Parks & Wildlife Service and Yellomundee Aboriginal Bushcare, Australia Contact: [email protected] or visit Yellomundee Firesticks on Facebook Yellomundee Firesticks with Yellomundee Aboriginal Bushcare are treating African Lovegrass (Eragrostis spp.) and Lantana (Lantana camara) with cultural fire on Darug land. ‘Firesticks aims to increase culturally relevant learning pathways that enable a greater diversity of fire, sustaining a healthy people and healthy country approach to Natural and Cultural Resource Management.’ Applying cultural fire assists with the heavy labour of manual removal of weeds. Cultural fire is a cool fire that burns the invasive weed to allow native species a chance to regenerate. Cultural fire removes biomass and allows sunlight to hit the ground where native seedlings fight to compete with exotic weeds. Cool fire also stimulates native seed bank while not burning surrounding native gum (Eucalypt spp.) trees. 2 Yellomundee Firesticks have mapped the areas burnt by cultural fire and will monitor the response by both the weeds and native vegetation. Above: Native grass recovering after the burn A Pacific Baza (Aviceda subcristata) showed up during our burning and we observed it closely. It was possibly benefiting from the fire as well. 3 Invasive Pest Attack in North Bengal Ashok Das Gupta Researcher and Extentionist on Indigenous Knowledge related to agriculture Dept. of Anthropology, University of North Bengal, India Email: [email protected] North Bengal spans the sub-Himalayan area of the West Bengal State of India. It includes the Teesta-Brahmaputra and Mahananda-Ganges River basins separated by the Barindland Ridge. Parts of Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan Himalayas and the Foothill regions are also part of this territory. There are many rural- urban areas in Sub-Himalayan North Bengal especially tea- plantations which are surrounded by sacred groves, social forestry, gardens, parks and small rivers. Rajbanshis are Indigenous to the plain, hillock and ridge portions (not the Himalayan pockets) and live an agrarian rural lifestyle. They are associated with animal husbandry on both waterweeds of marshland areas and special grasses grown in grassland areas of upland catchment areas. They also cultivate some local rice paddy varieties , jute, summer and monsoon vegetables, chilli, spices, banana and leafy vegetables and collect yams, fruits, arum and edible ferns. They also collect fishes from local streams, wetlands, ditches and catchment areas. They use paddy-come-fish as well as fish-come- duck types of production systems. Some Rajbanshis also work in the local tea-gardens. 4 In the tea garden areas, Caterpillars emerge from eggs in the soil and attack attack of looper and plants which has become a serious problem for small other hairy caterpillars scale tea gardens. Lime, micro nutrients, organic has increased to a high manure, bioNPK, di ammonium phosphate (DAP), level. They are coming chemical weeding, irrigation through sprinklers, from shade trees and nitrogen manure are added to the tea plantations. neighboring jungles and Regular spacing, proper seed bed management, have become a matter ramming, good shade trees and ring systems are also of concern for the followed. Timely rain in the pre-monsoon and monsoon economy and agriculture assists with natural control of caterpillars. of the region. The pesticide Alphamethrin is no longer effective and Quinalphos, Imamectin benzoate and Cypermethrin are now more common. Local Rajbanshis from earlier days perform certain sacred bathing in winter and spring such as Maghali sinan, Bauni sinan and also worship the rivers when monsoon begins. Now, we could understand that these performances are all related to timely raining that control the pests in natural way. 5 Managing Weeds on Bunuba Country in the Kimberley, Western Australia Clive Aiken, Natalie Davey, Kendrick Chungul (Bunuba Rangers); Tom Bach and Haripriya Rangan (Monash University); and Christian Kull (Monash University/ Université de Lausanne) Caring for Bunuba Country Bunuba Country is located in the central Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Bunuba Rangers work on behalf of the Bunuba people to look after Country in accordance with their culture and customs. The Rangers work in partnership with the Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife and research organisations such as Monash University to share knowledge about how best to care for their country. A significant part of sharing knowledge and caring for country involves managing weeds at significant sites around the Fitzroy River, which flows through Bunuba Country. Main approach: Place-based weed management Place-based weed management focuses on particular places within