Oral Presentation Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference 2025

Cultural wisdom protecting forests and country - partnerships to protect country from forest biosecurity threats (124858)

Aj AP Perkins 1
  1. Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Corindi Beach, NSW, Australia

Exotic pests and pathogens threaten Cultural and environmental values unique to Australia. The recent detection and subsequent spread of the invasive myrtle rust pathogen, Austropuccinia psidii, has highlighted the challenges associated with managing these exotic pests and pathogens. The spread of exotic environmental pests and pathogens is accelerating globally, representing a significant and growing threat to Australia’s biodiversity.

The skills and knowledge base around forest pests and diseases in Australia is limited to a small number of experts nationally, most of whom are focussed on production/plantation forests. More recently, effort has extended to native forest ecosystems with the arrival of myrtle rust, impacting ecologically and Culturally significant species of the Myrtaceae family. The detection of significant dieback in the ecologically and Culturally significant bunya pines, grass trees, etc. associated with introduced Phytophthora species causing root disease is another emerging area of significant concern. These issues have exposed our limited understanding of the impacts on Country, Culture and community and how Indigenous sciences and knowledge systems and Cultural custodianship practices are largely missing in the environmental biosecurity space.

Country is the centre of Culture for Indigenous people, which is ingrained through connection, story, knowledge, kinship, totemic systems, language, and Lore. Almost 70 million ha of forest in Australia is Indigenous owned/managed, or under native Title determinations or Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ABARES 2018). Fifty percent of the national reserve system is managed by Indigenous groups under the Federally funded Indigenous Protected Areas program. Additionally, there are other lands captured under joint managed Parks and Reserves, including K’gari and the Wet Tropics World Heritage areas. This highlights the need to build relationships with First Nations people on the ground.

This continent has been protected and cared for by Indigenous people for over 60,000 years and while western science is an important tool in our efforts to heal and better protect Country, especially from exotic pests and pathogens, traditional sciences are needed for form the bases which has been informed by 60,000+ years of observations and experiments to perfect successful and sustainable practices; Lore. And are vital for the ongoing protection of Country from existing and new threats.