Jocelyn Davies

formerly, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation · Land & Water Flagship

This special issue highlights organisational innovations and new insights about challenges of living successfully in Australian rangelands through a diverse set of papers from the 18th Biennial Conference of the Australian Rangeland Society. Key themes in the papers are collaborations for innovation and adapting to change. The papers indicate a shi...

Highlights • Pig movements play a role in the spread of economically important infectious diseases such as the African swine fever. • Pig movement and trade networks were localized and based on close social networks involving family ties, friendships and neighborhoods’. • The networks exhibited good community structure implying close relationships...

Pasture user groups have become an important tool by which development agencies have sought to improve rangeland condition and resolve inter-herder conflict. However the ability of these groups to improve rangeland condition in the Gobi Desert is rarely examined. In this paper, three and twelve year old pasture user group areas were compared with n...

We identify four principles that can promote the prospects of health outcomes for desert Aboriginal people from livelihoods engaged with land management. The principles were derived inductively using a grounded theory approach, drawing on primary research that used qualitative and participatory methods, and from relevant literature and theoretical...

Increasing attention to formal recognition of indigenous and community conserved areas (ICCAs) as part of national and/or global protected area systems is generating novel encounters between the customary institutions through which indigenous peoples and local communities manage these traditional estates and the bureaucratic institutions of protect...

Co-production between scientific and Indigenous knowledge has been identified as useful to generating adaptation pathways with Indigenous peoples, who are attached to their traditional lands and thus highly exposed to the impacts of climate change. However, ignoring the complex and contested histories of nation-state coloni-sation can result in naï...

Indigenous land and sea management (ILSM) has been the focus of large government investment in Australia and globally. Beyond environmental benefits, such investments can deliver a suite of social, cultural and economic co-benefits, aligning with the objectives of Indigenous communities and of governments for culturally appropriate socio-economic d...

The responses of ecosystem functions in Inner Mongolian grasslands to climate change have implications for ecosystem services and sustainable development. Research published in two previous Special Issues of The Rangeland Journal shows that recent climate change added to overgrazing and other factors caused increased degradation of Inner Mongolian...

Gender equity has been recognized as a guiding principle for conservation management globally. Yet little attention is paid to gender in the design and implementation of many conservation programs including those in the vibrant and expanding arena of Australian Indigenous conservation partnerships. We examined the impact of gender in management of...

The persistence of African swine fever virus (ASFV) in endemic areas, with small-scale but regular outbreaks in domestic pigs, is not well understood. ASFV has not been detected using conventional diagnosis in these pigs or adjacent populations of resistant African wild pigs, that could act as potential carriers during the outbreaks. However, such...

We applied social network analysis to pig trader networks on the Kenya-Uganda border. Social network analysis is a recently developed tool, which is useful for understanding value chains and improving disease control policies. We interviewed a sample of 33 traders about their experiences with trade and African swine fever (ASF), analyzed the networ...

• Stakeholders thought the IPs effective but their outcomes and impacts were modest. • Increased social capital was the prime mediator of change. • Producer technical knowledge and capacity for collective action were enhanced. • Producer-centric approaches and delayed market engagement limited IP impact. • R&D actors with orchestration capability a...

This article reflects critically on the use of a wiki as a data repository for knowledge transfer and as a mediating technical platform for social learning in the context of a multi-country programme of agricultural research for development. The wiki was designed to foster sustainable social learning and an emergent community of practice among biop...

It is now more than a decade since integrated agricultural research for development (IAR4D) was proposed as a "new approach" or "set of good practices" for organising research to address complex problems of agricultural development, food security and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.Since then, there have been efforts to investigate its impact in comp...

A study was undertaken along the Kenya-Uganda border in four districts of Tororo and Busia (Uganda) and Busia and Teso (Kenya) to understand smallholder farmers' knowledge, practices and awareness of biosecurity measures. Information was collected by administering questionnaires to 645 randomly selected pig households in the study area. In addition...

Pig movements play a significant role in the spread of economically important infectious diseases such as the African swine fever. Characterization of movement networks between pig farms and through other types of farm and household enterprises that are involved in pig value chains can provide useful information on the role that different participa...

Landscape-scale approaches are emerging as central to ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation globally, triggering the requirement for collaboration between multiple actors and associated risks including knowledge asymmetries; institutional fragmentation; uncertainty; power imbalances; “invisible” slow-changing variables; and entrenched...

A cross-sectional survey was carried out to characterize the pig production systems in four districts along the Kenya-Uganda border. Information was collected by administering structured questionnaires to 645 households in 32 randomly selected clusters. The study showed that the majority of the farmers owned very small pig herds (2.4±0.1) which we...

A cross-sectional survey was carried out to assess risk factors associated with occurrence of African swine fever (ASF) outbreaks in smallholder pig farms in four districts along Kenya-Uganda border. Information was collected by administering questionnaires to 642 randomly selected pig households in the study area. The study showed that the major r...

This paper explores innovation processes and institutional change within research for development (R4D). It draws on learning by Australian participants associated with the implementation of a three-year Australian-funded food security R4D programme in Africa, and in particular a sub-component designed to support and elicit this learning. The autho...

Efforts to resolve indigenous peoples grievances about the negative impacts of protected areas established on their customary estates by governments are driving the development of shared governance and management. The Tuhoe people have sought that the settlement of their grievances against the New Zealand government include unencumbered rights to m...

This paper examines the economic potential for fire management to provide offsets to carbon markets in the savannas of northern Australia. Long-term field trials in Australia's savannas have quantified greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions abatement resulting from improved fire management. However, little is known about the economic potential of fire mana...

Several assumptions about the levels and causes of rangeland degradation in Mongolia are widely accepted by a range of stakeholders. These assumptions have become important in terms of guiding strategies and policy directions. This paper provides a critical analysis of five widely-held assumptions about rangeland degradation in Mongolia to the more...

Our research explores relationships between climatic variability, rangeland condition and livelihoods across three land tenure systems in the Inner Asian Gobi Desert. Tenure systems throughout the Gobi Desert have undergone radical change recently. Some international case studies show that if land tenure in arid areas does not account for the clima...

Social actors in arid regions must develop strategies to respond to available resources, which are scarce, variable, patchy and unpredictable relative to other regions. We explore our observations of relationships amongst people and organisations in Australian deserts using a stylised network model of the structure of social networks in arid system...

Employment is generally considered as essential for improving individual and social livelihoods and wellbeing in Australia. Typically, employment rates are low among Aboriginal people living in remote regions of Australia. Often this is attributed to a lack of mainstream labour markets. However, Aboriginal employment participation is low even in re...

Globalisation presents particular challenges for deserts given that their sparse populations, which are amongst the world’s poorest in an absolute economic sense, tend to be remote from major markets and have only a distant, marginal voice in political and policy decision making. Here we are defining deserts as the arid and semi-arid drylands that...

People need real opportunities to live the kind of life to which they aspire -to undertake livelihood activities they have reason to value, to achieve good health and well being outcomes, and to have resilience to shocks and stresses. A range of stakeholders consider that economic development is constrained by lack of engagement between Aboriginal...

Two concerns of national relevance in central Australia are the continuing decline in Aboriginal health status relative to the rest of the Australian population, and the loss of environmental services. We draw on literature from a number of disciplines to show that not only are these two concerns interrelated but that dealing with them is inextrica...

,The sustainable livelihoods approach,is widely,used in rural development,internationally but has been little applied in Australia. It is a framework,for thinking and communicating,about factors that impact,on the livelihoods of individualsandfamiliesincludingtheirhealth,wellbeingandincomeandthemaintenanceofnaturalresourcecondition.The approach,aim...

Arid systems are markedly different from non-arid systems. This distinctiveness extends to arid-social networks, by which we mean social networks which are influenced by the suite of factors driving arid and semi-arid regions. Neither the process of how aridity interacts with social structure, nor what happens as a result of this interaction, is ad...

Climate change is likely to have a significant effect on the health of those living in the 70% of Australia that is desert. The direct impacts on health, such as increased temperature, are important. But so too are the secondary impacts that will occur as a result of the impact of climate change on an uncertain and highly variable natural environme...

Kangaroos are a common pool resource harvested for commercial markets that utilise meat and skins. Harvest is regulated by legislation that establishes the formal rules of the kangaroo industry. Our recent research, conducted in South Australia, examined the formal rules of commercial harvest and has also uncovered informal institutions in operatio...

Kangaroos are culturally significant to Aboriginal people but Aboriginal people are generally not involved in kangaroo management or in the kangaroo industry. Our research has provided the first opportunity for Aboriginal people in South Australia to present their perspectives on the commercial harvest of kangaroos. Research methods were qualitativ...

"This paper focuses on pastoral rangelands of arid Australia - multiple use landscapes, where extensive land uses such as livestock grazing and self drive tourism co-exist with indigenous peoples' access to and use of their traditional lands. Legal recognition of indigenous native title rights started only in the early 1990s. Native title overlays...

Kangaroo management is important to the sustainability of Australia's rangeland landscapes. The commercial harvest of kangaroos assists in reduction of total grazing pressure in the rangelands and provides the potential for supplementary income to pastoralists. Indeed, the commercial kangaroo industry is considered by natural resource scientists as...

More than half of Australia's lands and coastal regions are now encompassed within the boundaries of native title claims. The claims and the 'native title communities' who have lodged them are shaping a new geography of Australia's lands and seascapes. These communities derive from traditional ownership and thus have a different, and more fundament...

Semi-arid and arid lands cover approximately two-thirds of Australia. These heartlands are the focus of a 7-year research project (Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre - DK-CRC) that has the vision of developing a sustainable future through the development of thriving desert knowledge communities. The research aims to deliver: Sustainable l...

Negotiated agreements between traditional owners and pastoralists about use and management of lands held under pastoral lease tenures in the arid and semi-arid rangelands of Australia will promote secure futures for both parties. In this paper we will discuss this assertion and the processes of agreement making we are engaged in the South Australia...

"Native title has the characteristics of a common property resource. Its management involves accommodating both Aboriginal customary law and the Australian legal system in securing and maintaining a flow of benefits and allocating these between members of the native title community. Native title governance institutions need to be robust to hold and...

From Pages 1 and 2: "The questions I pose in the title to this paper sits somewhat ill at ease with conventional conceptions of indigenous relationships to natural resources. Customary indigenous law is usually characterized as not prescribing ownership rights, but rather rights and responsibilities to use and sustain natural resources such as wild...

Aborigines, because of their population numbers and increasing control over land and resources, are crucial to the sustainable development of rural Australia. However, appropriate Aboriginal development requires the replacement of the ‘top‐down’ approaches generally adopted by government agencies by ‘bottom‐up’ approaches reflecting the needs and a...

Harnessing research and jurisdictional collaboration to sustain governance initiatives is a key role of the Desert Knowledge CRC. In this paper we discuss our approach to this task. We offer a simple presentation of the very real opportunity and challenge currently before us in desert Australia. We don't pretend expertise beyond our capability - th...

Harnessing research and jurisdictional collaboration to sustain governance initiatives is a key role of the Desert Knowledge CRC. In this paper we discuss our approach to this task. We offer a simple presentation of the very real opportunity and challenge currently before us in desert Australia. We don't pretend expertise beyond our capability – th...