Indigenous rangers restore vast Australian desert lands
Samantha Murray, CEO of the Indigenous Desert Alliance, explains how her network restores biodiversity across the Australian desert using cultural burning.
The alliance coordinates 70 ranger teams covering 270 million hectares of land. This massive area is nearly as large as the entire country of Argentina in total size alone. It stands as the biggest Indigenous-led conservation corridor on the planet.
Rangers have restored biodiversity to 140 million hectares over the past four years. They use cultural burning, a practice present in Aboriginal culture for millennia, to manage the land effectively. This method helps control fuel loads and protects special places from intense wildfires.
Traditional Owners guide rangers on Country, sharing deep ancestral knowledge through oral storytelling. Elders direct where and how to burn based on their unique understanding of the landscape. This wisdom ensures plants renew themselves and animals return to eat fresh sprouts.
Technology and local wisdom combine in collaborative dialogues called yarns for knowledge sharing. One ranger guides burning exercises from a plane while following advice from elders on the ground. This approach protects threatened species like the night parrot and great desert skink.