Indigenous Land Use Research Articles

Achieving broader benefits from Indigenous land use agreements: community development in Central Australia

Research on a range of agreements between Indigenous people and extractive industries suggests that equitable benefits from such activity on Indigenous land are rare. In Central Australia, the Central Land Council has piloted a new approach to generating benefits from land use agreements by establishing a community development unit and encouraging Indigenous traditional owners to apply some of the income from land use agreements with mining companies and similar parties to community development activities. This paper discusses the variety of community development projects this unit is undertaking with traditional owners and Aboriginal community members, and the challenges it is facing as it tries to utilize community development principles in its projects. It indicates some of the issues that may need to be considered in government policy which seeks to assist Indigenous landholders gain optimum benefit from land-related payments. In particular, the paper demonstrates that the priorities of Indigenous people to support and promote social and cultural activities, including maintaining micro-communities (outstations) on homelands, may conflict with government views as to how to 'optimize benefits' from land use agreements.

Indigenous knowledge and land use policy: Implications for livelihoods of flood recession farming communities in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Flood recession farming commonly known as molapo farming in the Okavango Delta is an important land use and livelihood activity for poor and vulnerable communities living on its fringes. Molapo farming is mainly practised by subsistence farmers. The study on the system was conducted in the villages of Shorobe and Tubu in the Okavango Delta in Ngamiland District, Botswana. The objective of the study was to find out if indigenous knowledge (IK) still has a role in molapo farming and if current land use policy supports or stifle the practice and the attendant IK. Indigenous knowledge systems (IKSs) within molapo farming were studied using focused group discussions, Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRAs) and open ended interviews. Policy content and process analysis was done through document perusal and stakeholder analysis. The study found that in Tubu more than 50% of molapo farms are owned by women making molapo farming an important livelihood activity for marginalised groups. The Ngamiland land use plan acknowledges the importance of stakeholder participation and IK in land management. However the use of IK is not evident in the plan and subsequent recommendations. Molapo farming is considered a potential threat to the ecological functioning of the Delta, through use of inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides. Consequently farmers have been discouraged from practicing molapo farming on floodplains. However according to the farmers, ploughing in floodplains minimizes cutting of trees and renders use of fertilizer unnecessary due to annual deposition of nutrients through flood waters. We conclude that although IK still plays an important role in molapo farming there exists no policy environment to use the knowledge and support the practice. We recommend that sustainable molapo farming requires the use of IK within an Integrated Land Use Planning process.

Reindeer herders in the Timan-Pechora oil province of Northwest Russia: an assessment of interacting environmental, social, and legal challenges

The IPY-endorsed project MODIL-NAO (Monitoring of Development of Traditional Indigenous Land Use Areas in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO), NW Russia), concluded in early 2010, was a collaboration between scientists and indigenous peoples’ representatives of the NAO in Northwest Russia. It has resulted in a GIS database showing traditional economic activities as well as modern oil development and is aimed at serving as a tool for the indigenous peoples of the area for negotiations about land use issues. The project focused also on assessing the state of socio-economic, juridical, and environmental conditions for the indigenous population of the area. Major data sources were a questionnaire survey amongst reindeer herders, and a satellite image interpretation with the aim to monitor physical degradation of the tundra. Both the database and the assessment are introduced and major challenges for future development are pointed out.

Pre-colonial (A.D. 1100–1600) sedimentation related to prehistoric maize agriculture and climate change in eastern North America

Despite the importance of understanding the effect of land use on floodplains in eastern North America, few studies have directly addressed the possibility and extent of prehistoric indigenous land use on floodplain development. Here we report geoarchaeological evidence of increasing floodplain sedimentation and prehistoric land-use intensification in the Delaware River Valley (eastern United States) during the Medieval Climate Anomaly–Little Ice Age transition. The evidence of this anthropogenic sedimentation event, documented throughout eastern North America, is designated here as pre-colonial sediment (PCS), ca. A.D. 1100–1600. The data demonstrate that the combined effects of prehistoric land use and climate change affected eastern North American floodplain development several hundred years prior to the onset of major European settlement.

Role of Brazilian Amazon protected areas in climate change mitigation

Protected areas (PAs) now shelter 54% of the remaining forests of the Brazilian Amazon and contain 56% of its forest carbon. However, the role of these PAs in reducing carbon fluxes to the atmosphere from deforestation and their associated costs are still uncertain. To fill this gap, we analyzed the effect of each of 595 Brazilian Amazon PAs on deforestation using a metric that accounts for differences in probability of deforestation in areas of pairwise comparison. We found that the three major categories of PA (indigenous land, strictly protected, and sustainable use) showed an inhibitory effect, on average, between 1997 and 2008. Of 206 PAs created after the year 1999, 115 showed increased effectiveness after their designation as protected. The recent expansion of PAs in the Brazilian Amazon was responsible for 37% of the region's total reduction in deforestation between 2004 and 2006 without provoking leakage. All PAs, if fully implemented, have the potential to avoid 8.0 +/- 2.8 Pg of carbon emissions by 2050. Effectively implementing PAs in zones under high current or future anthropogenic threat offers high payoffs for reducing carbon emissions, and as a result should receive special attention in planning investments for regional conservation. Nevertheless, this strategy demands prompt and predictable resource streams. The Amazon PA network represents a cost of US$147 +/- 53 billion (net present value) for Brazil in terms of forgone profits and investments needed for their consolidation. These costs could be partially compensated by an international climate accord that includes economic incentives for tropical countries that reduce their carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

Successful strategies for native title and Aboriginal cultural heritage approvals—;an examination through the development of the Queensland CSG and LNG industry

2009 saw an unprecedented level of engagement between oil and gas companies in Queensland and Aboriginal groups, primarily because of Queensland’s burgeoning CSG/LNG industry. Most proponents have had to deal with native title and Aboriginal cultural heritage arrangements with multiple parties simultaneously, often in the early stages of project developments where project certainty is low. Many native title parties have also had to deal with multiple projects at the same time. This has added an extra layer of complexity to what is already a difficult negotiation and regulatory landscape.Queensland and Commonwealth legislation impose a complex system of regulatory approvals governing the interaction of Aboriginal interests and oil and gas projects. Project proponents must comply with state petroleum legislation and Commonwealth native title legislation to ensure approvals are validly granted. This paper will examine the complex legislative and regulatory hurdles that have been faced by project proponents in the Queensland CSG/LNG industry in managing native title and Aboriginal cultural heritage issues. The paper will critically analyse the generally accepted strategies being implemented to address native title and Aboriginal cultural heritage issues. This will include a specific focus on the legal requirements to obtain indigenous land use agreements, the fundamental issues required to be addressed to achieve the authorisation and registration of these agreements, and the alternative options if it is not possible to obtain these agreements. Finally, the paper will conclude with some commentary on the legal aspects of managing Aboriginal cultural heritage.

Representing 'Australian Land'

This article examines how Indigenous Australians' claims to their land are represented in the mainstream, non-Indigenous Australian media. In so doing, the article explores the common tropes available to non-Indigenous Australians in relation to Indigenous ownership of land, and in particular the native title system. It is argued that whilst initial land claims are discussed in detail within the media from a variety of perspectives, subsequent Indigenous land use agreements are most commonly reported upon in terms of business and economic concerns, with 'failed' agreements represented as impediments to 'development'. Thus, whilst the claims of Indigenous Australians to their land are sometimes reported positively by the media, this is only insofar as native title does not impede business development, which is frequently represented as the way in which land ultimately ought to be used. Thus non-Indigenous readers are left with an image of native title whereby initial land claims are considered not to be threatening, but only to the extent that subsequent use of the land still fits a white Australian image of 'development'.

Indigenous land use management in lower Changane Chibuto: Sacred and profane desacralisation and recovery

Changes in the global environment and rapid land use fostered by changing national political economic policies are the main factors impacting the context within which traditional knowledge in resource management is used. Traditional management practices are deeply embedded in local culture and spirituality; therefore, gender and spatial ecological diversity are key issues for investigation. This article explores traditional environmental management practices in Lower Changane, Southern Mozambique from an historical dynamic perspective. The article draws on qualitative research methods including literature review, and detailed fieldwork conducted between 1998 to 2000. The field work involved direct observation, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and informal interviews. The research found that many traditional environmental management practices are of relevant ecological importance, but have often been overlooked by developmental strategies. The research recommends that the study and documentation of traditional environmental management should inform sound environmental education.

Living on Country

Yvonne Stewart is the Chairperson of the Joint Management Committee of the Arakwal National Park, Byron Bay. This is not a ‘co-managed national park’ on the model currently arising from a handback of a National Park to Aboriginal owners with mandatory lease-back to the NSW National Parks Service. Instead, this is a Jointly Managed area arising from a long process of negotiation to achieve an Indigenous Land Use Agreement [ILUA] under the Commonwealth Native Title Act. The Park is jointly managed by the Arakwal Aboriginal Corporation and by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. In October 2006, Yvonne talked about the positive and the negative sides of the community’s experience of the joint management of the Arakwal National Park. In this interview, conducted soon after in November 2006, Yvonne discussed these issues further but began by explaining the Park’s position which is within her community’s broader concern for their country.

Maintaining Indigenous Peoples' Land Use and Management Rights in Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism Projects

This paper considers whether the stakeholder participation model adopted by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Rules and Modalities and employed by CDM project participants is consistent with consultation obligations expressed in international law. The paper further questions whether regulatory oversight exercised by CDM organs and institutions should be one of substantive review to ensure CDM projects are compliant with international law and maintain the integrity of CDM projects.

Indigenous Land Use in the Ecuadorian Amazon: A Cross-cultural and Multilevel Analysis

Among the remaining tropical forests of lowland Latin America, many are inhabited by indigenous peoples, and the sustainability of their land uses is a point of heated debate in the conservation community. Numerous small-scale studies have documented changes in indigenous land use in individual communities in the context of expanding frontier settlements and markets, but few studies have included larger populations or multiple ethnic groups. In this paper we use data from a regional-scale survey of five indigenous populations in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon to describe their agricultural land use practices and investigate the factors that affect those practices. We find the areas cultivated by indigenous households to be small compared to those of nearby mestizo colonists, but a large proportion of indigenous cultivated area is in commercial land uses. We also construct multilevel statistical models to investigate the household and community-level factors that affect indigenous land use. The results reveal significant influences on cultivated area from contextual factors such as access to markets, oil company activities, and the land tenure regime, as well as from household characteristics such as demographic composition, participation in alternative livelihood activities, and human, social and physical capitals. Overall the results are most consistent with market integration as an underlying driver of land use change in indigenous territories of the study area.

An Indigenous Perspective on National Parks and Sámi Reindeer Management in Norway

AbstractProtection of nature for biodiversity, and for the material livelihoods of Indigenous peoples, have much in common. Indigenous relations to nature are, however, based on unity between use and protection, implying that human use is necessary for effective protection. Often protected areas include the homelands of Indigenous peoples, whose needs and rights are still being ignored to a large extent. This paper explores the effects of a plan for a significant increase of large nature protection areas in Norway, still under implementation. Most of the new protection areas are in the heartland of the Indigenous Sámi, whose core livelihood is reindeer management. The plan implies transfer of jurisdiction from Indigenous and local domains to formalised central domains. In several cases, this has provoked Indigenous and rural groups to organised resistance. In this case study, there are signs of new tensions between Sámi and other rural groups. Indigenous land use can be marginalised by park restrictions and increasing pressure from visitor activity. The Sámi response was to boycott the park management board leading to a stalemate. A robust solution seems to require consideration of deeper institutional levels.

(Re)asserting Indigenous Rights and Jurisdictions within a Politics of Place: Transformative Nature of Native Title Negotiations in South Australia

AbstractAustralia's dominant politics of place has largely failed to give meaningful recognition to Indigenous peoples. The Native Title Act 1993 required governments, industry and others to (re)consider the basis and extent of their authority, unsettling the non‐Indigenous systems’ assumed dominance. While Indigenous hopes about Native title have diminished as a result of subsequent judicial, legislative and administrative responses, Native title negotiations have been pivotal in redefining politics of place and Indigenous–settler relationships in Australia at several scales. Focusing on South Australia's Statewide Indigenous Land Use Agreement Negotiation Strategy, this paper considers such a redefinition. The paper identifies four strategies as critical to success in transformative spatial politics: getting process right; recognising and supporting Indigenous jurisdictions; engaging and transforming non‐Indigenous scales; and shifting Native title process away from legalities, towards people and relationships. Since 1999, these strategies have transformed the politics of place and built more equitable inter‐cultural relationships and networks based on mutual recognition and respect between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous rights and interests in land and waters.

Rio Tinto and Indigenous Community Agreement Making in Australia

The common law and statutory recognition of Aboriginal land rights and native title in Australia have had a profound impact on the minerals industry. In particular, the High Court's recognition of native title in Mabo v Queensland (No 2)1 has changed the social landscape for mining company/indigenous agreement making in Australia. At the same time Rio Tinto has undertaken a programme of internal cultural change focused on improving community engagement, exemplified in its direct agreement-making with indigenous communities. The Argyle Participation Agreement, signed in September 2004 between Argyle Diamond Mine, local Aboriginal people and the Kimberley Land Council, and registered as an Indigenous Land Use Agreement in March 2005, illustrates this change. The agreement, herein described, is the most progressive, mining company/Aboriginal community agreement negotiated to date in Australia and represents a business-oriented and community-empowered approach that complements statutory consent for mining development.

NATIVE TITLE AND ABORIGINAL HERITAGE ISSUES AFFECTING OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION

This paper is principally concerned with native title issues as they affect oil and gas exploration and production. However, it also reviews Aboriginal heritage laws and practices because they have the potential to be just as disruptive to an expeditious exploration program or to the construction of a production facility as do native title claims.The paper focusses on onshore petroleum exploration and production because the right to negotiate under the Native Title Act (NTA) does not apply offshore. However, the paper does consider offshore because the NTA can still affect offshore petroleum explorers and producers; either because their area of interest could include an island within a State or Territory jurisdiction or because the facilities to treat the offshore oil and gas could be located onshore.The paper examines the key provisions of the NTA which are relevant to petroleum explorers and producers, principally the subject of tenure to ground. It considers the validity of already granted titles. It then examines the process of application for new titles.Although the NTA is the common source of problems throughout Australia, it is necessary for the paper to consider the situation in each State and Territory, since the titles are different and the government processes of dealing with native title issues differs in each jurisdiction.Although the focus of the paper is on how to cope with the right to negotiate, the paper considers some of the categories of future acts in respect of which the right to negotiate does not apply (specifically, procedures for infrastructure titles, renewals and extensions of titles, the expedited procedure, indigenous land use agreements, reserve land and approved exploration etc acts).The paper mentions the Federal Court decisions in the Miriuwung Gajerrong and Croker Island native title claims and ponders the options for the High Court in deciding the recent appeals.The paper’s conclusion is that a negotiated agreement is the only way to cope with native title issues. The contents of such an agreement are considered.

DEVELOPMENTS IN NATIVE TITLE

Amendments to the Commonwealth Native Title Act came into force on 30 September, 1988.The amendments are complicated and detailed and significantly alter the manner in which resource companies and governments are required to act in order to comply with native title legislation. Some of the most significant features of the legislation are as follows:Native Title applications will be made to the Federal Court instead of the National Native Title Tribunal.The right to negotiate is subject to change.Native Title applicants are required to pass a new registration test to gain the right to negotiate.New State and Territory bodies may assume the role of the National Native Title Tribunal. These bodies will require State and Territory legislation and the approval of the Commonwealth Minister.People making an application for a determination of Native Title will be required to confirm that they have the authority of the people on whose behalf the application is made. Native title representative bodies will have a new certifying role to confirm this authority.Changes have also been made to broaden the type of land use agreements that can be entered into in relation to native title, that will be specifically recognised by the Native Title Act. These are described as Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUA's).In addition, recent seemingly conflicting decisions of the Federal Court have only added to the uncertainty.

NATIVE TITLE ISSUES AFFECTING PETROLEUM EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION

This paper focusses on onshore exploration and production because the right to negotiate does not apply offshore. However, the Native Title Act can be relevant to offshore oil and gas explorers and producers. First, where their area of interest includes an island within the jurisdiction of Western Australia. Secondly, in respect of land required for the facilities to treat petroleum piped ashore.Under the original Native Title Act the right to negotiate proved unworkable, the expedited procedure failed to facilitate the grant of exploration titles and titles granted after 1 January 1994 were probably invalid.The paper examines the innovations introduced by the amended Native Title Act to consider whether it will be more 'workable' for petroleum explorers and producers. It examines some of categories of future acts in respect of which the right to negotiate does not apply (specifically indigenous land use agreements, renewals and extensions of titles, procedures for infrastructure titles, reserve land, water resources, low impact future acts, approved exploration etc acts and the expedited procedure).Other innovations include the new registration test for native title claims, the validation of pre-Wik titles, the amended right to negotiate procedure, the State implementation of the right of negotiate procedure and the objection and adjudication procedure for grants on pastoral land.The response of each state and territory parliament to the amended Act is considered, as is the Federal Court decision in the Miriuwung Gajerrong land claim (particularly the finding that native title includes resources, questioning whether these resources extend to petroleum).The paper observes that the full impact of the new Act cannot be determined until the states and territories have passed complementary legislation and it is all in operation. However, the paper's preliminary conclusion is that it does not provide a workable framework for the interaction between petroleum companies and native title claimants.The writer's view is that the right to negotiate procedure is unworkable if relied upon to obtain the grant of a title. If a proponent wishes to develop a project in any commercially acceptable timeframe, it will have to negotiate an agreement with native title claimants. The paper's conclusion is that a negotiated agreement is the only way to cope with native title issues.

Colonist Land‐Allocation Decisions, Land Use, and Deforestation in the Ecuadorian Amazon Frontier

As one of the last agricultural frontiers of the humid tropics, Amazonia is the largest area of the world currently undergoing frontier settlement. Although the earliest intrusions of foreign populations into Amazonia date from pre-Hispanic times, the large-scale entrance of peasant colonists into the vast region is a recent phenomenon. Much of this movement represents the spontaneous migration of peoples, but governments in the region have also become increasingly interested in opening up and integrating Amazonia to national and international economies. These actions are frequently seen as potential solutions to a number of national problems, including the need to increase agricultural production, correct spatial imbalances in the distribution of population, exploit frontier lands for reasons of national security, and defuse potentially serious political problems resulting from the existing agrarian structure, landlessness, and unemployment. The upper basin of the Amazon in Ecuador, bordering on the eastern slopes of the Andes, is one such area of frontier settlement. Recent decades have witnessed the rapid conversion of these Amazonian forests to agricultural uses through a series of schemes bearing such labels as land development and colonization. Most forest intervention in the region has come at the hands of colonist farmers attempting to establish land claims along transport routes originally constructed to aid in petroleum exploration and exploitation. These are farmers who formerly have made a living in long-established farmlands and who, for various reasons (population pressures, pervasive poverty, maldistribution of farmland, lack of inputs for intensive cultivation, lack of nonagrarian livelihood opportunities, and generally inadequate rural development) have been increasingly squeezed out of their homelands. A marginal person by virtue of his low socioeconomic and political status, the farmer often perceives

Fabricating indigenous land use agreements

Fabricating indigenous land use agreements

The Americas before and after 1492: An Introduction to Current Geographical Research

Abstract The controversy over the Columbian Quincentenary identifies two broad issues of fundamental interest to geography: (a) the decimation and displacement of indigenous peoples, leading to creation of new human and cultural landscapes; and (b) the relative ecological impacts of indigenous and Colonial land use, as a prelude to the global environmental transformation introduced by the Industrial Revolution. This introductory essay outlines the contributions of ten critical or synthetic reviews, setting them in a wider context of contemporary research, as a web of related themes focused on the Americas before and after 1492. These themes include: (a) pre-Columbian population densities, environmental impact, and the myth of the Indian as Ecologist; (b) the labor intensity and technological sophistication of pre-Columbian agriculture in many areas; (c) the human implications and landscape impact of catastrophic indigenous depopulation; (d) the process of Spanish settlement and landscape transformation; (...