Introduction and Aboriginal Wetland Burning

To start out, I would like to say that I am very excited to start writing on a subject that I believe is very important to sustaining both biodiversity and cultural diversity. TEK (traditional ecological knowledge) is described by the US Department of Agriculture as being the "knowledge base acquired by indigenous and local peoples over hundreds of years through direct experience and contact with the environment”, and this plays a major role in the basis of indigenous peoples' culture. What I would like to focus on for this project is TEK, and how indigenous people around the world use it to create and protect a sustainable environment that in turn supports them. Practices that are being used today in hopes of creating a "greener" way of life often have already been around for hundreds of years being used by many first peoples. I believe that there is much to learn from these ways of life, and I hope that what I write here helps to convey that!

The first link that I would like to share is a video from youtube on Aboriginal wetland burning in Kakadu, Australia (a national park). This is a very interesting example of how traditional knowledge can be used to help supply more biodiversity in an area. Before European colonization, Aboriginal Australians used fire in order to help control a native grass called Mudja, which actually chokes out other wetland plant species and thus can have a negative affect on birds and other wetland animals. In the 1980's, feral Asian water buffalo were removed from the park leaving nothing to really keep the Mudja grass in check, this is when the opportunity to use Aboriginal TEK came into play. The burning starts in September, where the under layer of dead grass is burned and the living grass is killed to and left for a few days to dry before burned again. Smoldering fires could last for weeks, but are controlled through past land management (not a ton of debris from past seasons) and by Aboriginal stewards working with park management.  The website notes serious improvement as this processes is continued, "Results show that the re-application of traditional fire management dramatically enhances the diversity of both plants and animals, thus significantly improving the natural and cultural values of wetlands". As the grass is burnt back, other wetland species take its place and the ecosystem is restored.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1uYBgaqeT0

http://www.csiro.au/science/KakaduWetlandBurning.html

~Melissa