Indigenous Protected Areas and Working on Country Indigenous Ranger Programme wins Global Future Policy Award

Posted: August 23rd, 2017

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Australia’s commitment to land conservation through Indigenous Protected Areas and the Working on Country Indigenous Ranger programme has been recognised by the World Future Council, confirming that Australia will be awarded the Bronze Future Policy Award 2017 for empowering Indigenous people in the area of land restoration.

Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Hon. Nigel Scullion, said the Coalition Government was providing unprecedented support for Indigenous rangers. “Our record levels of funding for the Indigenous ranger programme has taken our total investment in Indigenous rangers to more than $550 million over seven years through to 2020,” Minister Scullion said. “This investment is not only leading to better environmental outcomes on country, but is providing valuable employment opportunities for more than 2500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Indigenous Ranger Programme is a great example of the traditional knowledge of our First Australians being combined with modern scientific know-how to improve environmental outcomes on country and I am proud that the work being carried out by our Indigenous rangers has been recognised on the world stage. We have long recognised the success of the Indigenous ranger programme, which is why the Coalition Government recently announced a new $30 million Capacity Building for Indigenous Rangers Strategy. It is fitting that we accept this award on the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Indigenous Protected Areas Programme – a Howard Government initiative that has transformed large parts of our country.

Alexandra Wandel, Director of the World Future Council (WFC):
Australia’s win of the Bronze Future Policy Award is sending a strong, empowering message: they show how a country vulnerable to desertification and climate change can find a smart and highly effective way to successfully address a global challenge.This is placing Australia, along with the other Future Policy Awardees, firmly on the map as an environmental leader.

The Future Policy Award is the only award which honours policies rather than people on an international level. Each year, the World Future Council chooses a topic for the Future Policy Award on which policy progress is particularly urgent. In 2017, in partnership with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), laws and policies were evaluated that contribute to the protection of life and livelihoods in the drylands, and help achieve Sustainable Development Goal 15, target 3, to “combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world.” The Awards will be presented at a ceremony in September 2017, at the thirteenth session of the Conference of the Parties of the UNCCD in Ordos, China.

More information on this year’s award recipients can be found at: World Future Council