Policy lessons from practice: Australian bush products for commercial markets

Abstract

Bush products provide one of few prospects for new or expanded natural resource-based enterprise activity by indigenous people of remote regions of arid central and tropical northern Australia. Realizing this potential requires development of effective certification or branding, functioning producer associations and joint ventures if returns to Aboriginal people are to improve. Nine steps are suggested as part of a strategy to address the challenges facing viable bush product enterprises.

Virtual Realities: How Remote Dwelling Populations Become More Remote Over Time despite Technological Improvements

“…This transition (particularly in the labour force structure) has been facilitated by improvements in transport and communications technology [15]. Technology change has not only improved the ease of access and egress to/from remote settlements, but has enabled people to remain in contact with one another-whether it be worker with manager [16], spouse with spouse [17], or consumer with supplier [18]. Improving technology is lauded as a pathway to improved socio-economic status [19], improved health service delivery [20], and improved delivery of government services [21] among other things.…”

“…Burke and colleagues [17] noted that men and women had different attitudes to the way in which information and communication technology (ICT) assisted the maintenance of long distance relationships. Cunningham and colleagues [18] pointed out that ICT and improved transport infrastructure offered opportunities to remote Aboriginal businesses only if they could be adapted to local conditions such as irregular access and seasonal variations in usage patterns. Cleary and colleagues [22] emphasised this point, noting that ICT and transport systems are usually designed and managed by urban based participants in the supply chain, who are consequently well positioned to use them to exploit remote businesses.…”

Desert knowledge: integrating knowledge and development in arid and semi-arid drylands

“…Here we introduce the papers in two broad themes. Four of the Australian papers (Cunningham et al 2009;Evans et al 2009;Moran and Elvin 2009;Singleton et al 2009) together with Tougiani et al's paper from Niger are concerned with efforts to reduce poverty and disadvantage by engaging local knowledge and resources equitably, and by promoting institutional change. The other group of four papers are concerned with understanding the diverse knowledge systems of desert people (Clark and Brake 2009;Maclean 2009; VaarzonMorel and Gabrys 2009), or tourists (Hueneke and Baker 2009), in order to promote collaborative management of the multi-functional desert landscapes of Australia.…”

“…always being in the bottom quintile of a country's income distribution) may be as hard or even harder to escape than chronic absolute poverty.'' The substantially higher average income levels of desert Aboriginal people compared to those in Niger (see Cunningham et al 2009) means it is difficult to assert that they experience absolute poverty by global standards. Nevertheless, their poverty relative to other Australians continues to be chronic and entrenched.…”

“…They argue that attention to three interconnected principles of subsidiarity, connectivity amongst agents in the system, and a multi-dimensional construction of accountability will promote governance that is adaptive to feedback from local knowledge and practice. Cunningham et al (2009) take up different agendas for institutional change. They are concerned about how desert Aboriginal people might engage more with markets and realise greater economic value from their traditions of harvesting plant food resources from naturally vegetated lands.…”