The pressures within a changing landscape: How indigenous joint management is changing conservation management practices in Western Australia

In 2011, Western Australia introduced the requirement of “protecting and conserving the value of the land to the culture and heritage of Aboriginal persons” into the state’s Conservation and Land Management Act. While bringing little change to the Indigenous Traditional Owners’ perspectives on land management, this became a powerful driver of change within the Western Australian government since it mandates ongoing collaboration between the staff of a government department and diverse groups of Aboriginal people who have different priorities, understandings of land management and decision-making structures to those of the state. These differences between Traditional Owners and conservation managers have both demanded changes to conservation management practices and procedures and generated a source of tension that portends further changes in the state’s conservation management practices. Based on 17 interviews with Traditional Owners, state-employed conservation managers and non-Indigenous land managers working in Aboriginal organisations, we consider how joint management practices are changing the nature of official conservation management. We document the progress and achievements of joint management to date, notably in the mutual appreciation of cultural and ontological differences and identify the lack of congruence between Indigenous and non-Indigenous boundaries and timeframes as sources of tension and issues requiring ongoing improvements in joint management collaborations.