Indigenous-led designation and management of Culturally Significant Species

Abstract

Globally, Indigenous peoples are actively seeking better recognition of plants and animals that are of cultural significance, also known as Cultural Keystone Species, or Culturally Significant Entities (CSE), which encompass both species and ecological communities. The acknowledgement and collaborative management of CSE in biodiversity conservation improves environmental outcomes as well as the health and wellbeing of Indigenous people. The global diversity and complexity of Indigenous knowledge, values, and obligations make achieving a universal approach to designating CSE highly unlikely. Instead, empowering local Indigenous-led governance structures with methods to identify place-based CSE will yield more culturally supported results. In this study we used a structured decision-making framework with objectives and biocultural measures developed by Indigenous experts, with the aim of prioritizing place-based CSE for collaborative management approaches on Bunjalung Country in coastal eastern Australia. Our findings support the strategic alignment of Indigenous-led objectives and biocultural measures for the place-based designation and management of CSE, by placing the decision-making authority within the local cultural governance structures. We found some congruence and some important differences between CSE priorities and management compared with the colonial focus of threatened species management underpinned by current laws and policies. We provide a reproduceable methods and demonstration of successful local CSE designation and prioritization in an Australian context that highlights opportunities for Indigenous leadership, supported by governments in designation and management of CSE.