Published works

The ‘scoping remote northern Australia resilience’ project is part of a larger suite of Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC projects being undertaken through Charles Darwin University in collaboration with the North Australian Land & Sea
Management Alliance (NAILSMA) and the Aboriginal Research Practitioners Network (ARPNet—a collective of Indigenous community researchers). Two main sub-projects under scoping resilience are: Payments for Ecosystem Services and Asset Assessment, and Governance Models for Indigenous communities. Collectively, these projects aim to promote enhanced understanding of the special circumstances concerning resilience issues in remote locations, and to identify culturally appropriate governance arrangements and enterprise opportunities that contribute to community resilience.

We collectively report the progress of our project work conducted during the financial year, 2016-2017, as below:
1. Research analyses, activities and assessments undertaken to assess the value of ecosystem services in northern Australia

2. Research and planning activities undertaken for developing the Governance models for Indigenous communities

1. Payment for Ecosystem Services:

• A detailed ecological-economic assessment conducted for the >600 mm rainfall region in North Australia
• Current land uses and related Ecosystem Services (ES) identified, assessed and mapped for the selected region
• ES from an Indigenous estate identified, assessment and evaluated
• An ES valuation framework developed
• Initial consultations for the next phase - Scenario Planning started

2. Governance models

• Desktop Asset Mapping report and Literature Review – considering published and externally available views on what constitutes assets (e.g. built, social and cultural capital) and the scoping of Indigenous perceptions of resilience.
• Background research by Aboriginal community researchers (ARPNet) on scope and interpretation of ‘hazards’ and resilience in remote Aboriginal community life – case studies at Gunbalunya and Ngukurr (NT)
• Research on resilience issues in the remote Island community of Galiwin’ku (NT) post 2014 cyclones Nathan and Lam, undertaken by Yolngu (local Aboriginal) researchers (Yalu – Galiwin’ku based Yolngu research organisation)
• Review, follow-up and extension of Galiwin’ku research - addressing governance issues
• Next steps – scaling up; Galiwin’ku, neighbouring communities, other States; a framework approach to building better relationships around governance and service delivery.