On 4th June 2008 at a ceremony at Chuulangun the Kaanju Ngaachi Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) was officially declared. This is the first stage of the Kaanju Ngaachi IPA which covers an area of 197,500 hectares of culturally, spiritually and biologically significant country. The Kaanju Ngaachi IPA is the 25th IPA to be declared in Australia and the first on Cape York Peninsula.
The Australian Government's Indigenous Protected Areas (IPA) Programme "aims to establish a network of protected areas which includes a representative sample of all types of ecosystems across the country" (Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts). Importantly, the programme supports Aboriginal people to manage their homelands in accordance with their laws and customs and to transfer knowledge of the land and resources to future generations.
The Kaanju Ngaachi Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers IPA is managed by the Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation for the northern Kaanju Traditional Owners. The key aspirations, actions and milestones for the protected area are set out in the Kaanju IPA Management Plan which was prepared in 2005.
Land management philosophy
The Kaanju worldview, in particular Kaanju governance and cosmology, underlie all aspects of Kaanju relationships with homelands, including land ownership, land management practices and regimes, and our rights and obligations in regard to land and resource use and management. Kaanju governance and cosmology also determine contemporary Indigenous management of homelands and is thus the underlying philosophy for appropriate management and planning for homelands, and the philosophy driving the Management Plan.
Aspirations
The aspirations for the northern Kaanju Traditional Owners for the IPA include:
To conserve, protect and enhance the natural and cultural values of Kaanju Homelands for the benefit of current and future generations of Kaanju people.
To manage Kaanju Ngaachi in accordance with Kaanju laws and customs.
To reaffirm traditional Kaanju governance structures in relation to land and resource management on Kaanju Homelands.
To promote the recognition, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, of the Kaanju people as primary managers and decision makers for our homelands.
To develop and operate homelands-based community enterprises that incorporate sustainable land management principles.
To develop homelands-based projects, education and training that will improve the capacity and self-esteem of Kaanju people living on homelands.
To support Kaanju people in our permanent reoccupation of homelands.
To incorporate, where appropriate, traditional knowledge with western scientific processes providing beneficial outcomes for natural and cultural resource management policy and practice.
IUCN Management Category
The Kaanju Ngaachi IPA is managed according to IUCN Protected Area Category V:
Protected Landscape/Seascape: Protected Areas managed mainly for landscape/seascape conservation and recreation
Area of land, with coasts and seas as appropriate, where the interaction of people and nature over time has produced an area of distinct character with significant aesthetic, cultural and/or ecological value, and often with high biological diversity. Safeguarding the integrity of this traditional interaction is vital to the protection, maintenance and evolution of such an area. (IUCN. 1994. Guidelines for Protected Area Management Categories. CNPPA with the assistance of WCMC. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.)
Management of the IPA is integrated into the work program of the Chuulangun Rangers. The Chuulangun Rangers are supported by the Australian Government's Working on Country Program under the Caring for Our Country Initiative, the State of Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management's Wild River Rangers Program, and Bush Heritage Australia.
To view the short film Northern Kaanju Ngaachi Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers Indigenous Protected Area please click here.
Certain activities in the Kaanju Ngaachi IPA, such as research, camping and pig hunting will require a permit. If you plan to visit the IPA please contact Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation to find out about any special requirements.
