Joint-Management

So, given my long stint in the airport, where there is amazingly, free internet, which I plan on abusing for the next 6 hours, I thought I’d udpate everyone with a post about the Parks of the Northern Territory – didn’t really get a chance to go into my work here, other than a minute or two, and I’m sure everyone is dying to hear more of my philosophical musings.

That was a long sentance.

And that was a short one – I promise I’ll try to keep the musings and the length under control this time.  So I visited two Parks in the Northern Territory – Litchfield NP and Kakadu NP.  Australia is interesting, because Litchfield is run by the NT gov’t, so it’s actually comparable to a state park in the states, but they call them NP, and I won’t argue.  This alone completely changes how they’re managed – Litchfield has 10 rangers and Kakadu has 70, the funding from the federal gov’t is a lot more, etc. etc.  Kakadu currently has a joint management plan (one of the first, and considered the best), and Litchfield wants one, but faces a big problem with it – a problem typical of joint-management schemes.   The problem is that there are 4 completely separate clans of aboriginal people in Litchfield, and the Park wants to have ONE single joint-management plan.  Now, when I say clans, I mean different languages, different traditions, different histories.  These are not relatively new distinctions.

And say the Park is trying to do something on the land of Clan A, hypothetically.  Under the joint-management scheme, the Park consults Clans A,B,C,D all of whom have an equal vote.  Now Clan A thinks that Clans B,C,D have no right to interfere with their land (“not your country, not your business” has been often quoted to me), so they’re unhappy.  But they can’t really do anything about it, because the majority just out votes them.  So what ends up happening in the end is that the clan that actually is affected doesn’t see the results they want.

The impression that most people have is that the aboriginees are a unified group – that’s what I thought before I came.  A lot of this is because almost every aboriginal action goes through the Northern Land Council, an organization set up with the Land Rights movement to give the aboriginees a political organization with know-how and everything.  This is universally understood (political organizing, that is) to be a necessity if indigenous people are to be successful in getting any rights or benefits.

Anyway, because they have this organization, almost every decision that happens on a Park level has already gone through this myriad system of the NLC, and what started out as a crazy complicated issue comes out as a nicely packaged policy statement that gives the illusion that aboriginees are united.  And this is a really big obstacle for Parks.  Because if they are serious about caring about local peoples, and about preserving cultural heritage (which they say they are) then the current system isn’t working.  And Kakadu, whose management plan says that one of the best indicators to how well they’re doing is how satisfied the aboriginal owners are, is definitely not doing a great job.  And everyone says that even though it’s horrible, it’s the best there is.  Litchfield is, to some, completely hopeless.

And this is something that I’ve seen in countless places.  National Parks are obviously a centralized system of lands, managed at various levels, but ultimately by a federal organization.  And there’s too often a refusal to acknowledge the complexities that exist at local levels that undermines the Parks.  Nowadays, as Park rangers and managers move really quickly in between jobs (just looking for that next promotion – it is happening in the NPS in the States too), there’s a lack of focus on a local level at fostering the communication and relationships with locals that will reveal those complexities and hopefully reveal their solution.

Okay, I swear, it wasn’t my fault…

I missed my first plane.

Like actually missed it.  And it was a big one, Australia to Malaysia (I’m going to miss a connection too).

But here’s what happened.  7:30 AM flight, so I arrived punctually at 5:43 (if there is one word to describe myself on this day, I’d use punctual).  Anyway, I get to the Airport, scan the check-in counters for my flight (there aren’t many.)  Quantas, JetStar, AirNorth,Virgin, that’s it.

But no Garuda.  Which is my flight.  no worries, usually it’s a partner airline, so I go to the departures board.

No Garuda.  No Flight GX711.  Not even a flight at 7:30.  Heck, not even a flight to Bali at all.

My airline ceased to exist in April.

So needless to say, I am now waiting till 4:00 PM to catch a connection to Singapore, which will get me into KL on time.  Another long day in airports, I might try to get a start on my paper!  Probably a good idea, but we’ll see.

A Correction, and a lot of other stuff

Okay, I just want to start by saying that there was a mistake a few posts ago, when I said internet cost 8$ / min.  That was a mistake.  It certainly seems like 8$ / min, but that would be so criminal, I would have to be really, really stupid to pay that.  And while I often do dumb things, including a few on this trip (which we won’t go into – don’t worry, nothing dangerous or that would involve police), I am NOT that dumb.  So please, don’t worry that I don’t eat for a week to save up money to update the blog.  It’s not that bad.  I had a delicious bowl of chili (no where near Skyline, but what is?) and then some blueberry yogurt and fruit for dessert.  Well, for the rest of dinner, because McDonald’s soft serve is calling me (remember the 50 cent cones?  Yes, they’re still here!)

Fortunately, I have all day tomorrow, minus an hour interview, to do absolutely nothing, so I plan to exercise a lot and catch up on all the workouts I’ve missed or cut short this trip (For example, the other day, I was running in Kakadu, near sunset because that’s the only time the temperature / sun is bearable, and I was running right next to a swampy river.  Now crocs are a big deal in Kakadu, and even though I doubt there were any around, it was kind of nerve racking to run in the semi dark, through high grass.  I eventually wussed out and turned back 2 km before the end of the trail.)    Anyway, I went on a 90 minute run today, and it was both glorious and extremely painful.  The best way is just keep running in one direction until you get  tired, and then you have no choice but to run back.  Saw an amazing sunset over a conservation park right in Darwin.  Tons of families, tons of people using it, which is always a good thing to see, especially on this trip.  I can’t not think about my project, even when I work out.

Darwin, and the whole of the Top End (Northern Territory) has some issues to work out.  Southern Australia has been absolutely decimated by water shortages recently, and it probably won’t change anytime soon.  Anyone who thinks oil is the most important liquid right now or in the future is crazy – it will be water.  And in Darwin, they don’t really get it.  They still use it indiscriminantly, which I think is extremely stupid, to be blunt (so do the southern Australians I have met, who are astounded by lawns, and private gardens).  They water their grass at 12 in the afternoon, not a cloud in the sky.  It’s wasteful, and it’s not just a few people.  It’s a lot of people, including the Botanical gardens and the conservation Parks.  There’s absolutely no reason to abuse a resource because it”s abundant now, and unless something changes, the Top End will be in as dire straights as the souther states, and it’s a tough fate, but it might be too late, we’ll just wait. and see?  Sorry, again, another instance of entertaining myself.   You learn a lot about yourself when you travel alone.  Oh my, again my internet runs out.  I don’t understand!

Anyway, the other thing about Darwin is there is still a lot of racial tension in between whites and Aboriginees – I’ve seen a few conflicts already.  And this is the same conflict that is going on in the Park right now.  Big deal.

Finally, one last thought- As I’ve said before the Park has a uranium mine in the middle of it.  Which is really bad, I think, and really paradoxical.  But there’s also a town to service the mine and some tourism as well.  It’s not big now, but everyone except the aboriginees wants it to expand.  And did I mention its in the middle of the Park?  Again!  I don’t  get it!  But they’re supposedly supposed to raze the town after the mine shuts down and rehabilitate it, but if they think they’ll be able to kick these ppl out of their homes, they are in for a massive battle.  So Kakadu, despite being probably the best joint-managed park in the world, and despite being a very successful park as far as consevation goes, has a lot of problems to work out with the local communities if it wants to survive.

night!

Jabiru is hot, and there are absolutely no trees

It’s Saturday, and absolutely nothing is open past 2 pm in Jabiru, the small town in the middle of the National Park. So because it’s either roast in the sun while I pour over more books, I sat at the bus stop. And for four hours, not a single bus came. Oh well, small town, I guess.

Tonight, there was a local rugby match going on that I went to watch – fairly big deal – competition between Jabiru and Darwin, etc. etc., and the concession stand guy didn’t have any change to give the guy in front of me. To which he said, it’s a small town, you know me, just come by my house tomorrow.

So, ya. definitely a small town. But there are definitely impacts. There aren’t many Parks with this level of development inside the border (Yellowstone comes pretty close) and a few other things, but it’s definitely a big thing. Although techinically, it’s not in the Park.

Nor is the massive 80 sq km mine next to the town, and for which the town was started. Because, the same day they signed the Park into existence and gave the local aboriginees ownership, they also signed a bill saying that the mine was no longer part of the Park, and even though the aboriginees owned the land still, they didn’t have veto rights over mining (like they do in the rest of the Park).

Huh. I know. Seems mind boggling, but this is the kind of stuff that happens all the time. Happened in Peru, happened in Chile, happening here. But always the same thing – people want money, and Parks can’t really do anything to stop it. They can just hope to control it. So that’s sad.

But on a happier note, actually, at the moment, I’m fairly pessimistic about the Parks. But the sunset was pretty, and the rugby game was fun. And I have Jules Verne to read before I go to bed. So that’s nice.

Which reminds me (not a non sequitor, i swear) of the title of my blog! I finally finished Over the Edge of the World, the book from whence my blog idea comes. Magellan was an interesting bloke. Oh my. I just said bloke. So I will stope here, and come back to Magellan next time. Night!

The Method behind the Madness

This trip, thus far, has been amazingly hectic.  A lot of people have actually assumed, based on the Circumnavigator’s flag (which contains a ship) and on my rowing experience, that I was literally circumnavigating the globe, as Magellan did, in a boat.   This would be absolutely crazy, but would have at least afforded me some quality time to digest everything and go through all of the info that I have accumulated, and (I hope) partially retained.  The problem with having such an amazing grant is unavoidable.  Since I have a paltry three months (yet, that’s forever!) to go to 7 countries and even more Parks, I have a small amount of time in each place.  Add in travel time, food time, getting lost time, and the whole process becomes very rushed.

And given that I am already, amazingly, half way through the trip, I thought I take a step back and look at what I’ve done.  And, in that light, I thought I would shed a little light on exactly what has filled my days (besides eating and getting lost – I’ve already shared those stories).  And I’ll use my experience here in Kakadu to do so.  Kakadu is a massive park – 22,000 sq. km.  There’s no way I could experience the entire Park in a few days, let alone complete interviews and talks and all that.  But when I first got to the Park yesterday, I stopped at the visitor’s center, which are almost always indicitave of the level of intepretation and infrastructure you can expect throughout the rest of the Park.  For Kakadu, an internationally known Park, and that sees a lot of visitors, they have ranger dedicated to sharing information with the Park.

Once I got here, my first interview was with the local aboriginal corportation, who helps co-manage the Park.  This is fairly unusual, but they are actually the owners of the land of the NP, albiet they have leased it back to the Australian commonwealth to be run as a NP.   My interview was with the various managers of the corporation and I even got the chance to talk to one of the former members of the Board of Management for the National Park.  During the interview, I try to get an overview of the history behind the Park, the relationship that exists between the various actors (in this case, the gov’t and the aboriginal corporation), what some of the problems are, what needs to be done, and by whom, etc. etc.  The interviews tend to be very loose, and we normally go off onto tangents discussing various parts of Park policy, philosophy (not as often, but I was talking to a former philosophy student yesterday), and all kinds of things that eventually help me get a picture of the current situation surrounding the Park.  I know that seems vague, but the conversations seem to build on themselves, until they’ve grown into discussions about things which I hadn’t even been aware of before I went in.    Yesterday, I ended up focusing a lot on uranium development in Kakadu, which is an ongoing issue with the aboriginals, but hadn’t been on my agenda of issues going into the interview because it’s not technically a Park issue.

After the interview, which yesterday lasted about 4 hours (this is extraordinarily long – they normally are less than 2, more than 1), I spent the rest of the day in the corporations library going through old research papers, books, and other materials about the Park and the aboriginal joint management scheme.  This can be boring, but there’s so much to learn about a place that it’s usually fascinating to read, and I only left when they kicked me out at 6 o clock in the evening.

But, this is luckily Australia, where almost everything is in English (the aboriginees have their own language which would make communicating with them harder), so the process is easier and can reach depths that were hard to get to in S. America – especially with written materials.  I can read Spanish well enough to understand what’s going on, but it takes a long time, and even then, I usually miss the fine details.

But today, I went and actually visited the Ranger Uranium Mine, which is another big player in the area, and one of the biggest environmental threats to the Park.  These types of interviews are usually with tourist companies or other organizations that are working in or near a Park, but not Park employees.  Kakadu just happens to have a uranium mine.  Go figure I guess.

Tomorrow, I will probably spend the entire day at the Park offices – interviewing and going through documents (similar to yesterday, although the perspective will be completely different).  And when I do get to spend some time in the Park, which here has been little, I still consider it research – looking at their infrastructure, seeing the Park as a tourist would.  Because when the majority of people visit a Park, the conditions for successful management are usually relatively simple: clean toilets, good roads, nice views.  Kakadu had over 95% approval in the 90s, even though there were a LOT of problems going on in the Park.  So it’s good to get that perspective, because it tells me a little bit more about how everyone experiences the Park.  I mean, just consider this – if you drove every road in Kakadu (which are where most tourists stay) you would only see 1% of the park.

 

Anyway, I hope that sheds some light on what exactly I’m doing everywhere I go – I’m having a blast, spending money on internet like crazy (here its 8 $ / min!) so I apologize if it’s rushed.  Again, probably won’t put pictures up for a while, but I will try.  No wireless anywhere.  Oh well, half way down just means I still have half the world to see!  I’m so excited to see everywhere, but I am definitely enjoying Jabiru, Australia, home of the only hotel in the world shaped like a crocodile.  Why? I have no idea.  But I like it.