Aborigines have harnessed the country’s forests as a resource for millennia, now for the first time they are being offered a significant say in how modern forestry should be conducted. Source: The Australian
The global Forest Stewardship Council’s certification is courted by Australian timber companies eyeing the higher returns and the new markets that the council’s stamp of approval can bring for timber products.
FSC is responding by spending $1.3 million to develop its first Australia-specific standards for forestry practices and products, aimed at balancing social, environmental and economic concerns.
And, for the first time, Aborigines are being asked to help shape a set of these new standards, aimed at protecting indigenous rights and maximising benefits for local communities.
Discovering what indigenous Australians want included in those standards has fallen to a group headed by Rowan Foley, a former Uluru park ranger of the Wondunna clan of the Badtjala people from Fraser Island.
“As the original owners and managers of our forests, indigenous Australians have a unique connection to the land that goes back tens of thousands of years,” Mr Foley said.
“Many Australian forests contain sites of cultural significance or provide local indigenous communities with a tangible link to their heritage.
“This is why all indigenous Australians can and should have a say in the ongoing management and conservation of our forests — to ensure their unique cultural values are protected.”
Mr Foley, based in Alice Springs, is general manager of the Aboriginal Carbon Fund, which has been awarded $60,000 by the FSC to involve the wider indigenous community in the setting of standards for certified forestry operations.
As well as ensuring significant sites are protected, the standards are likely to address indigenous access rights to production forests, certification for Aboriginal timber products, and potentially, jobs in forest operations.
Recent research showed FSC certification of forestry in the Congo basin had brought benefits for local indigenous communities.
“We hope to bring the same benefit to Australia’s indigenous community,” Mr Foley said.
Daniel Mackey, deputy chief executive of FSC Australia, hopes the council will play a positive role for indigenous Australians, both within and beyond areas under native title.
