Saving Australia's native flora and fauna with Aboriginal peoples' ecological knowledge and expertise

This paper presents the authors’ response tothe Australian Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communication’s inquiry into Australia’s faunal extinction crisis. The main focus of the response to the inquiry is on: the ongoing decline in the population and conservation status of Australia's nearly 500 threatened fauna species; the wider ecological impact of faunal extinction; the use of traditional knowledge and management for threatened species recovery and other outcomes, as well as opportunities to expand the use of traditional knowledge and management for conservation; and the adequacy of existing funding streams for implementing threatened species recovery plans and preventing threatened fauna loss in general.In all aspects of protecting Australia’s natural environment, the traditional knowledge and practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ecological experts, community representatives and organisations, particularly Aboriginal community controlled organisations (ACCOs), must be drawn upon. Genuine and ongoing partnership between Federal, State, Territory and Local Governments and these Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experts, community representatives and organisations is essential, as set out in the new National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap.