The Tyranny of localism: Indigenous participation in community-based environmental management

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the claim that community-based environmental management is fairer and more democratic than so-called 'top-down' approaches. The paper examines the experience of Australian indigenous peoples with a national, community-based environmental management programme. The analysis of the programme reveals systemic marginalization of indigenous peoples. The paper suggests that 'bottom-up' governance serves to magnify the importance of local material and symbolic contests in which indigenous groups are engaged. Community-based environmental management can fail precisely because of what many of its advocates take to be its more democratic quality: its localism. Keywords: Environmental managementlocalismcommunity-based environmental managementindigenous peoples Notes 1. Most national environmental conflicts during this period (a) were spatially specific and therefore local in scale, (b) were focused on public lands and resources, and (c) involved diverse actors dominated by industry and civic actors, including environmental groups and indigenous organizations. Notable examples include: the Franklin dam controversy in Tasmania (see Kellow, Citation1989), a contest of loggers and environmentalists on Fraser Island (Sinclair, Citation1994), a protracted and bitter conflict over the use of tropical forests in northern Queensland (McDonald & Lane, Citation2000), a conflict over mining, Aboriginal rights and conservation in Kakadu National Park (Lane & Rickson, Citation1997) and a conflict over mining and indigenous rights in the Gulf of Carpentaria (Lane & Cowell, Citation2002). 2. The Australian Federal government has pursued this approach primarily through the NHT and related programmes (Lane et al., Citation2004), while a number of state governments (which share environmental management responsibility with the Federal government) are currently decentralizing environmental policy to locally- or regionally-scaled non-governmental boards or committees. The third tier of government in Australia, local government, has important land-use planning and development powers but is not deeply involved in the full spectrum of environmental policy and management activities. 3. Doyle Citation(1989) provided a detailed account of one such national organization that demonstrates the role of professional staff in shaping organizational policy and negotiating with government. 4. Yellowstone, the world's first national park, was established in western Wyoming in 1872. The principles upon which the park was founded were widely copied around the world. National parks which followed the 'Yellowstone model' emphasized "public ownership, tourism development, and above all wilderness, and they have had little place in them for indigenous peoples" (Stevens, 1986 quoted in Lane, Citation2001, p. 662). 5. The history of European colonialism in Australia, and the profound impacts it had on Australian Indigenous societies, has been extensively documented (see, for example, Markus, Citation1990; Reynolds, Citation1987; Rowley, Citation1970, Citation1974). 6. The problems frequently encountered by indigenous peoples include poverty, unemployment, malnutrition and other dietary problems including substance abuse, as well as high levels of disease and reduced life expectancy (see, for example, Hitchcock & Biesele, Citation2000; Perry, Citation1996). 7. Land rights legislation in some Australian states and territories enabled indigenous groups to claim, through a quasi-judicial process, their customary lands (see, for example, Brennan, Citation1992). 8. The Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) sought to codify the High Court's judgment, and create an administrative framework for pursuing and settling native title claims while allowing the processes of land development, management and transaction to continue. The Indigenous Land Corporation was established to administer the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Fund. The Fund is used to purchase land for those indigenous groups who cannot pursue rights under the Native Title Act 1993. 9. An extensive literature dealing with indigenous peoples and processes of land planning and environmental management confirms this (see, for example, Howitt, Citation2001; Jackson, Citation1997; Lane & Cowell, Citation2002; O'Faircheallaigh & Corbett, in press). 10. Country' is an Aboriginal–English term that refers to one's custodial lands. Environmental management, in this lexicon, is expressed as 'looking after country'. 11. Responding to the obvious problem that Facilitators were being asked to work over enormous regions, the number of indigenous facilitators in the next work was increased to 13 by 2000 (Commonwealth of Australia, Citation2000). 12. The authors interviewed six of the 13 indigenous Facilitators employed nationally as part of a study for the Indigenous Land Corporation in 1999–2000 (Lane, Citation2000). A further two Facilitators were interviewed for this paper in July 2002. The authors have kept detailed transcripts of these interviews. The interviews were conducted on the basis that the informants would remain anonymous.