KLC represents at first ever Oceania Ranger Forum

The Kimberley Land Council was proud to attend the first ever Oceania Ranger Forum, held in Rotorua New Zealand.

Supported by the International Ranger Federation, the forum brought together ranger professionals and conservation workers to discuss topics of common interest and concern, in an international networking and professional development event. Delegates from Australia, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea attended, including KLC Land and Sea Manager Daniel Oades, together with Gooniyandi Ranger Virgil, as well as Angie and Clifford from the Ngururrpa IPA Rangers.

The theme of the forum was ‘Inclusive Conservation’. Inclusive conservation is an approach for accommodating and balancing different visions for protected area management and for achieving socially relevant, economically productive and environmentally sustainable outcomes in protected areas.

Thanks to Daniel for sharing his experience and insights from the forum in the interview below.

What did you do at the forum?

The Delegates took in Traditional Maori Welcome Ceremony and cultural tourism products, understood the context of settlement in New Zealand on the local Maori People and the impacts of introduced species on their natural environment and species as well as the efforts to rectify these impacts through conservation efforts. We heard from delegates from Samoa, Solomon Islands, PNG, Australia and Local Maori on their conservation projects. The discrepancy in support of conservation by different governments was glaring and some communities are managing country as volunteers with just the passion to protect country against huge opposition or social factors, so it was great to see this Forum also raise funds directly for those communities to get their rangers practical things we expect in Australia, like uniforms and boots.

What did you take away from the forum? (relationships, learnings, experiences…)

That there could be future regular Oceania forums adding value to our already established networks here in Australia and this would feed into the International Ranger Scene. Also, that we need to continue to invest in management of feral and introduced species into the long term as we done so much damage to country and species at home, it was shocking to hear of all the devastation that Australian Animals introduced to New Zealand have done to their wildlife particularly to their birds. The Capacity building of Maori tribes (Iwi) by the NZ government was interesting and the planned divestment of responsibility of to those communities definitely of interest as well as the respect built in the Department of Conservation with Maori.

What was the highlight?

Seeing the impact of support from the Forum for the only female ranger from the Solomon Islands. She was quite emotional seeing so many rangers and particularly female conservation workers so it looked like that was going to give her a lot of drive to continue her work in her home country. Another highlight was the scenery of hills and lakes and the connection to Maori stories of the land.

The International Ranger Federation (IRF) is a non-profit organisation established to raise awareness of, and support, the critical work that rangers do in conserving the world’s natural and cultural heritage. Founded in1992, the IRF has members from over 50 countries, on six of the seven continents.