A history of the debate (1948-2009) on the commercial harvesting of kangaroos, with particular reference to New South Wales and the role of Gordon Grigg<sup>1</sup>

Lunney, Daniel

doi:10.7882/az.2010.027

Cited by 19 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The resource is already there and the industry is operating, albeit in a constrained form. Sheep replacement therapy was advocated by Grigg (1987) for many years and the role of commercial harvest reviewed by Lunney (2010). See also Grigg (2018) and Lunney (2018).…”

Section: Create Incentives For Co-production On Pastoral Landsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Professional kangaroo population control leads to better animal welfare, conservation outcomes and avoids waste

Wilson

Edwards

2019

Australian Zoologist

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Millions of kangaroos are dying in 2018 but without good conservation outcomes. Populations are crashing in drought and contributing to land degradation. Non-commercial culling is increasing because landholders seek to stop kangaroos from competing with their conventional livestock.The kangaroo harvesting industry is declining and has been ineffective in reducing populations, partly due to animal rights campaigns. In recent years less than half the annual quota has been taken, and is currently only 20 %. Consequently, graziers are erecting kangaroo-proof fences around groups of properties and lowering numbers through various other means.Non-commercial kill leads to poor animal welfare outcomes and considerable wastage. Regulators cannot monitor the number of kangaroos killed by amateurs, nor ensure high standards of dispatch of animals. To improve kangaroo welfare, professional population control should increase not decrease.Landholders need to get involved in professional population control and regard kangaroos as assets not pests. If kangaroos were as valuable as wild goats or deer, landholders would have an incentive to co-produce kangaroos alongside conventional livestock and take advantage of kangaroo's adaptations. Doing so could help address the falling sustainability of many rangeland production systems.Governments currently set harvesting quotas as a proportion of existing (variable) populations. An alternative would be to set population targets based on total grazing pressure that takes account of densities of other herbivores. It would reverse the situation where landholders are expected to carry an unstated number of animals that has no relationship to the carrying capacity of their properties, seasonal conditions or competing land uses.Landholders should have a form of proprietorship over kangaroos on their properties. It could even lead to fewer methane producing livestock and more kangaroos producing low emission meat. Higher value kangaroos would enhance sustainability and bring other benefits to both Indigenous and other landholders on whose properties they occur.Such changes are paradigm shifting but necessary to improve kangaroo welfare and reduce current wastage. Conventional livestock agencies such as Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) should support the kangaroo industry as part of co-production and diversification options and its strategy to be carbon neutral by 2030. In 2017 Australia's 40 million kangaroos were almost exclusively on the properties of MLA and wool industry ratepayers.This paper discusses the benefits of sustainable use of kangaroos and asserts a need for them to be realised. Changing the status of kangaroos is a complex undertaking that involves not only activities which farmers can control, but also product management, marketing and public attitudes. Transitioning to sustainable use begins with the importance of animal welfare and greater respect for kangaroos.

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Section: Create Incentives For Co-production On Pastoral Landsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Professional kangaroo population control leads to better animal welfare, conservation outcomes and avoids waste

Wilson

Edwards

2019

Australian Zoologist

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“…During the early part of the 19th century, kangaroos were killed for food, sport, and because they were perceived as pests (Pople and Grigg 1999). In the second half of the 19th century kangaroos were harvested in greater numbers, with most harvested for their skin (Shepherd and Caughley 1987;Lunney 2010). In the late 19th century, kangaroos were regarded as vermin and legislation was passed to declare them a pest and landowners were required to control them.…”

Section: Development Of the Commercial Kangaroo Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was not until the 1970s that the harvest evolved into what we recognise today as the commercial kangaroo industry (Shepherd and Caughley 1987;Lunney 2010) following claims from some groups that unregulated harvesting or culling was leading to local extinctions. This was subsequently found by a Commonwealth government enquiry to be incorrect (Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia 1972aAustralia , 1972b.…”

Section: Development Of the Commercial Kangaroo Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Throughout Australia, kangaroos are protected by law (Lunney 2010). Kangaroo management plans in each state that intends to export kangaroo products must be approved by the Commonwealth government, and the commercial harvest operates under state licensing frameworks that encourage compliance with the relevant legislation.…”

Section: Removal Of the Cap On Processor Licencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Balancing stakeholder interests in kangaroo management – historical perspectives and future prospects

McLeod

Hacker

2019

Rangel. J.

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Kangaroos are commercially harvested in five mainland states of Australia, with the harvest regulated by state government wildlife management agencies and overseen by the Commonwealth government. Non-commercial culling is permitted, and although most kangaroos have traditionally been taken by the commercial kangaroo harvesting industry, the proportion taken non-commercially has increased in recent years. Management plans that guide the regulation of the harvest support the management objectives of wildlife management agencies and the kangaroo industry, but the plans do not successfully address the objectives of other stakeholders including pastoralists and animal protection groups, which focus on minimising the grazing impacts of kangaroos and animal welfare issues respectively. We reviewed the objectives outlined in the management plans for kangaroos in the Australian rangelands and examined alternative systems for managing natural resources to identify if improvements to management could be made. Current management plans for kangaroos principally use fixed harvest rates that are responsive only to the state of the kangaroo population and not to changes in the environments in which kangaroos live. This type of management is reactive, and opportunities for improving management of the environment are limited. A viable alternative is active adaptive management which focuses on explicit measurement of the response of the natural system to management actions and use of this information to modify interventions to better meet management objectives. Active adaptive management is appropriate when management actions can strongly influence system state but the impacts of management are uncertain. We argue that the management of kangaroos and the environments in which they live would benefit from the adoption of an active adaptive management approach by wildlife management agencies.

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“…Even when people were keen to preserve our wildlife, there were only confused ideas on how to go about it, as there were no wildlife scientists in the department, nor were the universities teaching this topic. Kangaroo management, especially the commercial elements of management, dominated the wildlife management agenda (Lunney 2010) and an endangered species Act was not on the horizon as a separate Act in NSW.…”

Section: The Value Of the Oeh Databasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protect our protected areas!: the value of protected areas for fauna research and conservation, a case study of New South Wales

Lunney

Hope²,

Shannon³

2017

Australian Zoologist

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sity/ BiodivLawReview.pdf 2 International Union for Conservation of Nature of protected areas for fauna research and conservation. Specifically, we considered the deliberations of the IUCN World Parks Congress, and in particular the following paragraph from stream 1 in the Promise of Sydney: "Protected areas, when properly and effectively managed, are a proven effective tool for the conservation of wild fauna, flora, and fungi; the persistence of well-functioning,

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A history of the debate (1948-2009) on the commercial harvesting of kangaroos, with particular reference to New South Wales and the role of Gordon Grigg¹

Abstract: This paper traces the post World War II debate over kangaroo management, and how the various parties have managed the issue to arrive at the current levels of kangaroo harvest, with particular reference to NSW and the transition of policy from culling kangaroos as an

Cited by 19 publications

References 25 publications

Professional kangaroo population control leads to better animal welfare, conservation outcomes and avoids waste

Professional kangaroo population control leads to better animal welfare, conservation outcomes and avoids waste

Balancing stakeholder interests in kangaroo management – historical perspectives and future prospects

Protect our protected areas!: the value of protected areas for fauna research and conservation, a case study of New South Wales

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A history of the debate (1948-2009) on the commercial harvesting of kangaroos, with particular reference to New South Wales and the role of Gordon Grigg1

Abstract: This paper traces the post World War II debate over kangaroo management, and how the various parties have managed the issue to arrive at the current levels of kangaroo harvest, with particular reference to NSW and the transition of policy from culling kangaroos as an

Cited by 19 publications

References 25 publications

Professional kangaroo population control leads to better animal welfare, conservation outcomes and avoids waste

Professional kangaroo population control leads to better animal welfare, conservation outcomes and avoids waste

Balancing stakeholder interests in kangaroo management – historical perspectives and future prospects

Protect our protected areas!: the value of protected areas for fauna research and conservation, a case study of New South Wales

Contact Info

Product

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A history of the debate (1948-2009) on the commercial harvesting of kangaroos, with particular reference to New South Wales and the role of Gordon Grigg¹