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Monitoring to Learn, Learning to Monitor: A Critical Analysis of Opportunities for I ndigenous Community‐Based Monitoring of Environmental Change in Australian Rangelands
Author(s) -
Wiseman Nathanael D.,
Bardsley Douglas K.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
geographical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.695
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-5871
pISSN - 1745-5863
DOI - 10.1111/1745-5871.12150
Subject(s) - rangeland , indigenous , environmental resource management , natural resource management , natural resource , geography , environmental planning , environmental monitoring , stakeholder , environmental change , monitoring and evaluation , traditional knowledge , resource (disambiguation) , adaptation (eye) , climate change , political science , engineering , ecology , environmental science , agroforestry , computer science , public relations , psychology , computer network , environmental engineering , law , biology , neuroscience
Indigenous community‐based monitoring has been a central feature in many international attempts to improve monitoring of and local adaptation to environmental change. Despite offering much promise, Indigenous community‐based monitoring has been underutilised in natural resource management in A ustralia, particularly within the remote, semi‐arid rangelands. This paper discusses contextual social and environmental factors that may help to explain this apparent deficiency, before critically analysing key stakeholder perceptions of the roles for, and challenges of monitoring in the A linytjara W ilu r ara Natural Resources Management region in the north‐west of S outh A ustralia. The analysis guides a discussion of responses to better integrate monitoring in general, and Indigenous community‐based monitoring in particular, into regional environmental management approaches. We argue that community‐based monitoring offers a range of benefits, including: better coordination between stakeholders; a heightened ability to detect and respond to climatic trends and impacts; the effective utilisation of Indigenous knowledge; employment opportunities for managing and monitoring natural resources; and improved learning and understanding of rangeland socio‐ecological systems. Identified opportunities for spatial and temporal community monitoring designed for the A linytjara W ilu r ara region could be of value to other remote rangeland and Indigenous institutions charged with the difficult task of monitoring, learning from, and responding to environmental change.