Sustainable development focuses on social and human, natural and economic factors. By recognising and protecting Indigenous ecological knowledge each of these factors is addressed. What has become evident in recent times is the improvement to Australia’s natural environment when an holistic approach to natural resource management is adopted incorporating Indigenous ecological knowledge.[1] What also must be recognised is that, for Indigenous peoples, land and knowledge are inherently connected and access to traditional lands is an important aspect of cultural expression and well-being. Consequently, through a legal framework of recognition and protection of Indigenous ecological knowledge, the sharing of benefits from such knowledge can promote the achievement of economic self-sufficiency for those Indigenous communities.[2] The Garuwanga[3] Project is about finding the best legal structure of governance for Indigenous Australians to manage their traditional knowledge and culture and enable Australia to comply with the Nagoya Protocol.[4] The aim is to provide the communities with a path to sustainable development and capacity building. Australia is a signatory to the international Nagoya Protocol, which calls for countries to put in place two main measures: (i) ensuring that prior informed consent of Indigenous communities is obtained for access to their traditional knowledge, more specifically Indigenous ecological knowledge, and (ii) that fair and equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms are agreed upon for the use of that knowledge, keeping in mind community laws and procedures as well as customary use and exchange. By way of background, Australia has been grappling with how to protect Indigenous ecological knowledge and culture for more than 40 years. Many Australian government programs recognise that Indigenous communities hold knowledge critical to the conservation of biological diversity and natural resource management. In research commissioned for the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage in 2013, the UTS-based Indigenous Knowledge Forum proposed a legislative ‘Competent Authority’ framework for Recognising and Protecting Aboriginal Knowledge Associated with Natural Resource Management. The Authority would provide the governance framework for administering a legal regime covering the creation, maintenance and protection of community knowledge databases. This project addresses concerns over the form, independence and funding of such an Authority, as well as local Indigenous representation, by facilitating Aboriginal Community engagement in identifying, evaluating and recommending an appropriate Competent Authority legal structure.
Most competent authorities around the world are government based organisations or departments, however, Aboriginal communities have expressed great concern about such institutions having any form of control over their traditional knowledge. Accordingly, what is unique about the Garuwanga Project is the proposal for a competent authority that is independent of government. This paper will report on the governance model proposed by the Garuwanga Project in its Discussion Paper together with the outcomes of the consultations with Aboriginal communities across Australia.
[1] Commonwealth of Australia (2013). Caring for Our Country – Outcomes 2008-2013, 21, 31, 36-37, 39.
[2] Natalie P. Stoianoff, ‘Ensuring a Sustainable Future Through Recognizing and Protecting Indigenous Ecological Knowledge’, in V. Mauerhofer (ed.), Legal Aspects of Sustainable Development, Springer International, 2016, 109.
[3] Dharawal language for ‘Dreaming Cycle’.
[4] Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at its tenth meeting on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan, entered into force on 12 October 2014.
9d. Law and sustainability
