Based on ongoing inter-disciplinary research in northwest Australia this paper examines the moral economy of Indigenous participation in Protected Area management.
Paper long abstract:
Indigenous Protected Areas comprise over 40% of the national conservation estate and are premised on diverse objectives such as economic development, sustainable harvesting, enhancing Indigenous governance, in addition to preserving biodiversity. Based on ongoing inter-disciplinary research in northwest Australia, local Indigenous efforts to meet these diverse (some might say contradictory) objectives are examined in light of the current policy paradigm of "Closing the Gap". Of particular interest here, are local manifestations of broader tensions, contradictions as well as confluences generated in the moral economy of customary institutions through which Aboriginal people manage their country and the bureaucratic institutional requirements of Indigenous Protected Area management.