Reimagining the relationship between Gondwanan forests and Aboriginal land management in Australia's "Wet Tropics"

Roberts, Patrick, Buhrich, Alice, Caetano-Andrade, Victor, Cosgrove, Richard, Fairbairn, Andrew, Florin, Anna, Vanwezer, Nils, Boivin, Nicole, Hunter, Barry, Mosquito, Desley, Turpin, Gerry, and Ferrier, Asa (2021) Reimagining the relationship between Gondwanan forests and Aboriginal land management in Australia's "Wet Tropics". iScience, 24 (3). 102190.

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DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102190

View at Publisher Website: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.1021...

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Abstract

The "Wet Tropics" of Australia host a unique variety of plant lineages that trace their origins to the super-continent of Gondwanaland. While these "ancient" evolutionary records are rightly emphasized in current management of the region, multidisciplinary research and lobbying by Rainforest Aboriginal Peoples have also demonstrated the significance of the cultural heritage of the "Wet Tropics." Here, we evaluate the existing archeological, paleoenvironmental, and historical evidence to demonstrate the diverse ways in which these forests are globally significant, not only for their ecological heritage but also for their preservation of traces of millennia of anthropogenic activities, including active burning and food tree manipulation. We argue that detailed paleoecological, ethnobotanical, and archeological studies, working within the framework of growing national and world heritage initiatives and active application of traditional knowledge, offer the best opportunities for sustainable management of these unique environments in the face of increasingly catastrophic climate change and bushfires.


Item ID:	67707
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2589-0042
Keywords:	Environmental Science, Environmental Monitoring, Nature, Conservation, Environmental Resource, Biological Sciences, Plant Biology, Botany, Plant Ecology, Ethnobotany, Agricultural Science
Copyright Information:	This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Date Deposited:	18 Jul 2021 23:30
FoR Codes:	45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4503 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander environmental knowledges and management > 450301 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agriculture and forestry @ 33% 45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4503 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander environmental knowledges and management > 450304 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander environmental knowledges @ 34% 45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4501 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, language and history > 450101 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander archaeology @ 33%
SEO Codes:	13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1304 Heritage > 130405 Conserving the historic environment @ 33% 21 INDIGENOUS > 2104 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and culture > 210407 Conserving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and culture @ 33% 13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1307 Understanding past societies > 130703 Understanding Australia’s past @ 34%
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