Fresh calls for an overhaul of the relationship between ranger groups and government agencies have risen following release of a new Federal plan to protect threatened species.
The Federal Governments Threatened Species Action Plan 2022-2032 was released by Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek in early October.
The report outlined a series of 10-year objectives, including aims to prevent any new plant or animal extinctions, and protecting 30 per cent of Australia's land and ocean mass.
Increased collaboration with First Nations Peoples was targeted in the plan as a mean of effectively managing ecological communities and recovering threatened species.
As it stands, about 60 per cent of Australia's threatened species live on land managed or owned by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
Country Needs People executive director Paddy O'Leary said the relationship between governments and ranger groups needed an overhaul to ensure the plan's success.
"To ensure Indigenous land and sea management is taken seriously and strong capacity and cultural governance is supported in local and regional organisations we need government to be collaborators and supporters, not just contract managers," he said.
"Since approximately 2014 the Federal environment departmental staff dedicated full time to supporting Indigenous Rangers and Indigenous Protected Areas has been cut by around 95 per cent.
"That has to be rebuilt if the government is going to meet its agenda of doubling Indigenous Rangers over the next decade, meeting the 30 by 2030 targets for protecting land and sea and addressing the pressures causing species decline and extinction."
Mr O'Leary said First Nations knowledge in land management was valuable in understandings how care for the natural environment.
- Story by James Italia-Prasad
