In the real world finding models of engagement and strategies for fire management that bring different groups together and reduce conflict is not easy. Things do not always go as smoothly as we would hope and aspire to. In addition much community engagement work is quite new, and it has only relatively recently been recognised as a potential model for management.

However there are a growing number of fire management planning projects that involve the engagement of community members with researchers, planners or policy makers. Below we have summarised several examples that demonstrate the processes involved in improving on the ground fire management.

Activity: Models of engagment

How is fire management approached on the ground?

Following are resources and summaries for a handful of important examples from northern Australia of collaborative fire management planning. You may know of others from your area.

As you look at these examples, make notes on what you consider to be the strengths and weaknesses of these ventures in terms of their inclusion of principles of capacity-building, participatory practices, and adaptive management.

Kimberley Regional Fire Management Project, Western Australia
 This project involves a collaborative regional focus on fire management with the specific aims of:

  • working with people of the Kimberley to document and demonstrate good fire management practices for the pastoral industry, Aboriginal communities, and bio-diversity
  • communicate effectively to the people of the Kimberley about best practice fire management for the different land uses and different types of country
  • work with Aboriginal traditional owners to record traditional knowledge about fire management
  • using demonstration sites, document the effects of the current fire regime on land health including biodiversity and how this relates to 'patchiness'
  • develop a fire history for the Kimberley region
  • assess the accuracy of the fire affected area (FAA) data mapped from satellite imagery
  • assess biomass fuel accumulation for different vegetation types and economic analysis for fire
  • assess the practical applications of current State legislation and regulations to fire management requirements in the Kimberley

Note: The Kimberley Regional Fire Management Project website is under construction at the time of the unit preparation. Nevertheless, try to address the issues raised above.

Resource:

Kimberley Regional Fire Management Project website. Accessed July 2005.

Boggy Plain Project, Top End
This project has been initiated by Indigenous land owners in Kakadu National Park and involves the reintroduction of traditional burning practices coupled with monitoring of vegetation change, in collaboration with research agencies, under the auspices of the Bushfire CRC.

Reading:

Boggy Plains burning project information sheet. (pdf document)

Kakadu National Park Plan of Management
Kakadu National Park is jointly managed by the Department of Environment & Heritage (a Commonwealth agency) and the traditional owners of the land. For more information about the approaches and policy on burning management in the Park, refer to the Kakadu National Park Plan of Management.

Reading:

Kakadu Board of Management and Parks Australia (1998). Kakadu National Park Plan of Management. Parks Australia North, Jabiru.

Read pp. 6-14 and 33-35 (‘Managing the park together’ and ‘How the park will be managed’), and pp. 65-69 (specifically on fire management).

ACIAR Fire in Eastern Indonesia Project
 The initial 3 years of this project concluded in June 2005, and was funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). Like northern Australia, eastern Indonesia has a wet-dry monsoonal climate, a savanna landscape and fewer resources than more fertile regions in the country. Consequently, there was an ideal opportunity to share skills, technologies and lessons learned from northern Australia with regional neighbours.

The project involved collaborations among land management agencies in eastern Indonesian and northern Australia, NGOs, universities and villagers in Sumba and Flores.

For details on the project partners, the project objectives, methodologies and some of the preliminary outcomes, refer to the following web resources:

Resources:

Impact of fire and its use for sustainable land and forest management in northern Australia and eastern Indonesia. Charles Darwin University, Darwin. Accessed July 2005.

Tropical Savannas CRC (2004) Northern fire research links to Indonesia. Savanna Links Issue29. Accessed July 2005.

Tropical Savannas Fire Knowledge Project
 This project, funded by the Natural Heritage Trust and coordinated by the Tropical Savannas CRC, aims to bring together research and knowledge on north Australian fires and make it available to fire managers. The main stakeholders in the project are the regional NHT groups that cover northern Australia.

The project is coordinated by the Tropical Savannas CRC and the Bushfires Council of the NT, and is overseen by a steering committee of representatives of the major stakeholders in the project – the regional NHT groups and other fire managers of the tropical savannas.

Specifically the project aims to:

  • Develop best practice fire management guidelines
  • Developing fire management capacity within Indigenous groups, pastoral land managers, and for biodiversity conservation management
  • Develop a Knowledge Forum and Project Management structures that will ensure community uptake of the project outcomes.

Refer to the Tropical Savannas CRC project website for more information.

Reading:

Tropical Savannas CRC (undated). Fire Knowledge Project. TS CRC, Darwin. Accessed July 2005.

 

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