Old Ways, New Ways—Scaling Up from Customary Use of Plant Products to Commercial Harvest Taking a Multifunctional, Landscape Approach

Abstract

Globally, the agricultural sector is facing many challenges in response to climate change, unsustainable farming practices and human population growth. Despite advances in technology and innovation in agriculture, governments around the world are recognizing a need for transformative agricultural systems that offer solutions to the interrelated issues of food security, climate change, and conservation of environmental and cultural values. Approaches to production are needed that are holistic and multisectoral. In planning for future agricultural models, it is worth exploring indigenous agricultural heritage systems that have demonstrated success in community food security without major environmental impacts. We demonstrate how indigenous practices of customary harvest, operating in multifunctional landscapes, can be scaled up to service new markets while still maintaining natural and cultural values. We do this through a case analysis of the wild harvest of Kakadu plum fruit by Aboriginal people across the tropical savannas of northern Australia. We conclude that this system would ideally operate at a landscape scale to ensure sustainability of harvest, maintenance of important patterns and processes for landscape health, and incorporate cultural and livelihood objectives. Applied to a variety of similar native products, such a production system has potential to make a substantial contribution to niche areas of global food and livelihood security.

Pursuing Plurality: Exploring the Synergies and Challenges of Knowledge Co-production in Multifunctional Landscape Design

“…While in the past this plurality was managed through a productivist, economic lens, mirroring cost-benefit negotiations between different monetary evaluations of the land (Yoshida, 2001;Cairol et al, 2009), in recent years, such thinking has been challenged by a more holistic perspective that pursues social-ecological well-being through synergies across economic, ecological and cultural goals (Spataru et al, 2020). Such framings have received further support due to the various manifestations of the Anthropocene and its current and probable future impacts on our agricultural systems (Gorman et al, 2020). Additionally, recognizing the different subject positions occupied by different stakeholders and the varying amounts of power they represent, are seen as vital in understanding the decision-making pathways of multifunctional land use (Duncan et al, 2020;Fagerholm et al, 2020;Jackson et al, 2021).…”

Commercial Cultivation of Australian Wild Oryza spp.: A Review and Conceptual Framework for Future Research Needs

“…Australian Aboriginal people are the hosts of the oldest continuous culture on earth and possess deep ecological knowledge and spiritual connection to their land [9,65]. Their customary use of plant and animal resources over thousands of years has yielded an outstanding ecological knowledge of the value of natural resources, which has been inherited across generations [9,65]. In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, hereafter referred to as Indigenous Australians, are the landholders of nearly 78% of northern Australian land [9].…”

“…They also have knowledge of utilization of these natural resources through harvesting and processing of native plant species [9]. Globally, considerable attention has been raised to the potential for developing enterprises based on indigenous plant products to provide income, enhance livelihoods and maintain a strong incentive for land conservation [9,65,66]. This interest has been enshrined in international instruments such as the Nagoya Protocol which aims to protect the rights of indigenous people to benefit from commercial use of the native species about which they have indigenous knowledge and traditional cultural interests [66].…”

“…This interest has been enshrined in international instruments such as the Nagoya Protocol which aims to protect the rights of indigenous people to benefit from commercial use of the native species about which they have indigenous knowledge and traditional cultural interests [66]. In Australia, Indigenous ecological knowledge has resulted in a significant commercial development of over fifteen native food species, including, desert raisins, macadamias and Kakadu Plum [65,67,68]. This has stimulated Indigenous interest for exploring further options for economic development through the commercialization of additional native plant species.…”

“…Indigenous Australians highly value the idea of a culture-based economy that involves their ecological knowledge and connection to their country [9,65]. Australian wild Oryza species provide an example of the potential for a culturally-identified plant product [2].…”