Draft 2: includes comments by D. Spielman, P. Bird & A. Friend

This position statement is based substantially on one developed by the Australasian Wildlife Management Society. The Australian Mammal Society gratefully acknowledges AWMS and its authors for permission to use it. The original statement can be viewed on the AWMS website at: www.awms.org.nz. You can comment on this draft position statement on the AMS Forum.

Background
The wild animals and plants of Australia have provided indigenous people with food, clothing, shelter and trade items for thousands of years. These wild resources also play key spiritual roles in the lives of indigenous peoples.

Many traditional wild resources are extinct or in low numbers in fragmented habitats but others are still abundant. Some have been replaced by introduced species such as rabbits, buffalo, deer and feral pigs. These wild resources, whether they are native or introduced, provide indigenous people with commercial opportunities.

Based on the above,

The Australian Mammal Society:
RECOGNISES that the relationships between indigenous people and wildlife are ancient and based on value systems that are often culturally and traditionally unique to particular peoples.

Is AWARE that those value systems, based on consumptive and non-consumptive uses, are important to the maintenance of culture and tradition within rapidly changing social and economic contexts.

ACKNOWLEDGES that subsistence uses of wildlife remain critically important to many indigenous people.

ACKNOWLEDGES that indigenous people and traditional culture hold different attitudes to animal welfare than set out in western jurisprudence and pursued in western societies.

Is CONCERNED that legal frameworks and codes of practice adopted to conserve biodiversity, manage wildlife, regulate uses and trade, bestow propriety rights and standardise methods of handling, often ignore traditional laws, practice, knowledge and cultural needs, and are often implemented without negotiating with indigenous people.

ACCEPTS that options for economic development through agriculture and other forms of productive land use are extremely limited in many remote areas occupied by indigenous people.

ACCEPTS that non-traditional means may be used to find, procure, process, store, distribute and otherwise utilise wildlife by indigenous people for commercial and non-commercial purposes.

ACKNOWLEDGES that both traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge can provide reliable understanding for the sustainable use of wildlife.

ACCORDINGLY, AMS Recommends that:

The USE of wild resources for subsistence should be viewed as a basic right of indigenous people.

COMMERCIAL USES of wild resources should be encouraged as vehicles for economic development by indigenous people where those uses can sustained.

TRADE in wild resources, with appropriate safeguards, should aim to ensure that indigenous people are not alienated from traditional foods because they reside away from traditional lands.

Indigenous people should have complete ACCESS to all available and appropriate means of harvesting for the efficient and sustainable commercial use of wildlife.

Where TRADITIONAL GATHERING AND ASSESSMENT techniques are sustainable, then management based on those techniques should be considered equivalent to management based on science.

The SHARING of traditional knowledge and scientific management techniques should where possible be embodied within co-management agreements that reflect mutual respect and understanding.

COLLABORATIVE research into traditional ways of sustaining uses of wildlife, and of managing environments, should be prioritised and be the focus of cross cultural educational initiatives.

Cross cultural exchanges be encouraged between indigenous and non-indigenous people regarding ANIMAL WELFARE so that any pain or suffering experienced by wildlife is minimised, especially where this involves commercial and other non-traditional uses.