Kamaljit Kaur Sangha

Charles Darwin University | CDU · Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods

Assessing environmental liabilities of mining in Northern Australia: A Case study of the McArthur River Mine Mining projects supposedly offer enormous economic benefits; however, they often involve serious environmental liabilities that extend far beyond the life of the mine, including perturbing the ecological balance and causing the loss of ecos...

Numerous publications on natural resource valuations consider contexts where environmental assets at risk are significant to Indigenous Peoples and their estates. In the last two decades alone, many applied studies have aimed at investigating the ‘value’ of socio-environmental outcomes from the perspectives of the general populations including Indi...

Globally, there is a growing interest and potential for investment in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to protect, manage or restore ecosystems through incentive schemes including Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), Nature Repair, Carbon Markets, and Common Asset Trusts. Collectively, these NbS markets establish interchangeable mechanisms to help add...

Typically, conservation is achieved by excluding, evacuating, or legally dismissing the rights of local/native people from using protected areas, resulting in evictions, ongoing distress, and dejection among many Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) worldwide. However, the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary (BRTWS) in the Wes...

Benefit-sharing mechanisms have been instrumental in securing the support of local communities living on the edge of protected areas, and in resolving human-wildlife conflicts. Understanding how current conservation policies influence benefit-sharing and the management of human-wildlife conflicts is vital for designing strong mechanisms to achieve...

The aim of this investigation was to examine levels of minerals in fruit pulp of 12 jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) genotypes. In total, 25 mineral elements including quantity (7), essential-trace (12) and unclassified mineral elements (6) have been detected using ion chromatography, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, and induc...

With recent growing interest and potential investment in nature-based solutions (NbS), a local, regional and global level understanding of what kinds of mechanisms or arrangements work effectively to deliver the required biodiversity and climate change outcomes is essential. This paper presents the status and opportunities for Payment for Ecosystem...

Purpose Well-being is a complex, multi-dimensional, dynamic, and evolving concept, covering social, economic, health, cultural and spiritual dimensions of human living, and often used synonymously with happiness, life satisfaction, prosperity, and quality of life. We review the existing key wellbeing frameworks applied in Australia both for the wid...

Mining on Indigenous lands affects people's well-being and the relationship between themselves and their lands. Indigenous peoples' sociocultural and spiritual connections to their lands are symbolised in bush food, totems, ceremonial objects, sacred names, and kinship systems representing various provisioning and cultural Ecosystem Services (ES)....

Purpose Well-being is a complex, multi-dimensional, dynamic, and evolving concept, covering social, economic, health, cultural and spiritual dimensions of human living, and often used synonymously with happiness, life satisfaction, prosperity, and quality of life. We review the existing key wellbeing frameworks applied in Australia both for the wid...

Building Resilient, Sustainable, and Well-Being-Based Economies in Northern Australia

Unlabelled: Benefit-sharing mechanisms have been instrumental in securing the support of local communities living on the edge of protected areas to implement protected area goals and enhance biodiversity conservation outcomes. Understanding the acceptability of the types of benefit provided among diverse communities is crucial for co-designing ben...

Estimating the value of ecosystem services (ES) helps inform policies, development programs, and promote sustainable use and management of forest resources. The Western Ghats—a global biodiversity hotspot in southern India—contribute significantly to the well-being of Indigenous and local communities (IPLCs) by providing a range of ES. In this pape...

We establish a framework to examine the feasibility of using local vegetation for bioenergy power systems in small-scale applications and remote settings. The framework has broad application, and we present a specific case here to demonstrate the process. Our case study is the Tiwi Islands in northern Australia, where a large Acacia mangium plantat...

Researchers increasingly investigate ecosystem services to assess their role in supporting livelihoods, well-being and economic value in order to inform decision-making. Many studies have explored links between ecosystem services and community-based livelihoods, with a very narrow focus on the importance of land use to well-being. We evaluated the...

This report has been prepared as part of the Situational analysis of the Northern Australia horticulture industry project . It offers a detailed integrated assessment, highlighting farmers’ perspective on the current state of the north’s horticulture sector, and the related challenges and opportunities. Findings suggest that early and ‘out of sea...

The horticulture sector in northern Australia, covering north of Western Australia (WA), Northern Territory (NT), and north Queensland (QLD), contributes $1.6 billion/year to the Australian economy by supplying diverse food commodities to meet domestic and international demand. To date, the Australian Government has funded several studies on develo...

Northern Australia is prone to recurring severe natural hazards, especially frequent cyclones, flooding, and extensive wildfires. The region is sparsely populated (≪ 0.5 persons km-2), with Indigenous (Aboriginal) residents comprising 14% of the population, and typically the majority in remote regions. Despite national policy committed to addressin...

An ecosystem is healthy if it is active, maintains its organization and autonomy over time, and is resilient to stress. Healthy ecosystems provide human well‐being via ecosystem services, which are produced in interaction with human, social and built capital. These services are affected by different ecosystem stewardship schemes. Therefore, society...

The value of ecological systems to human well-being and the economy is often not estimated in contemporary economic and policy decision making processes. Estimating non-marketable and marketable values of ecosystem services from Indigenous managed land provides significant information about the role that the natural environment plays in maintaining...

Despite wider recognition of human interdependence with the rest of nature, our economies continue to fail to adequately value ecosystem services. This failure is largely attributed to the economic frameworks and related measures that focus on the production and consumption of marketed goods and services, but do not consider the other essential ele...

The Kere is a recurrent famine occurring in the south of Madagascar that emerged substantively in the 1930s. Each major event claims thousands of lives and keeps many in a cycle of impoverishment, despite the existence of various aid-based responses. This assessment presents qualitative research exploring two Kere-affected communities’ experiences...

Benefit-sharing has been instrumental in empowering local communities living on the edge of protected areas to engage in natural resource management and enhance biodiversity conservation outcomes. Tanzania has various categories of protected area managed by six main conservation institutions, each with different types of benefit-sharing mechanisms....

Benefit-sharing has been instrumental in empowering local communities living on the edge of protected areas to engage in natural resource management and enhance biodiversity conservation outcomes. Tanzania has various categories of protected area managed by six main conservation institutions, each with different types of benefit-sharing mechanisms....

The current crisis in Indian agriculture warrants solutions, but in consultation with farmers and related institutions; unlike the imposition of Farming Reforming Bills passed by the Indian Government on 20-22September 2020. The three recent Indian Government’s Farming Reform Acts i.e. Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce; Farmers (Empowerment and P...

The savannas of tropical northern Australia, covering 1.9M km², are relatively unmodified and support a very sparse human population (0.5 person/km²). Largely marginalised and impoverished Indigenous communities are key stakeholders in the region with legal rights to >60% of the land. Colonisation in the late 19th century significantly impacted lon...

Debate about what proportion of the Earth to protect often overshadows the question of how nature should be conserved and by whom. We present a systematic review and narrative synthesis of 169 publications investigating how different forms of governance influence conservation outcomes, paying particular attention to the role played by Indigenous pe...

Natural Hazard-induced Disasters (NHD) cause a wide range of losses to built and natural environments, the latter often beyond standard measures. Precise accounting and characterisation of the losses can assist in developing effective management policies that help to build resilient communities. This study applies trans-disciplinary approaches to a...

To incorporate Indigenous and local communities connections with nature for policy decision making, we integrate Ecosystem Services (ES) and Capability Approaches to develop a cohesive framework for assisting policy makers to better comprehend nature’s values that are vital for Indigenous/tribal well-being. Sen’s Capability Approach, when applied u...

Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) represent a direct link between people and natural systems. Unlike many non-Indigenous people, Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) have often maintained their cultural values over millennia through applying norms and regulations to manage their landscapes and sustain livelihoods. IPLCs’ astute manageme...

Building on unique Indigenous advantages for people living in remote areas, this study offers insights for innovative land-based economic opportunities across northern Australia. These advantages-outside the mainstream economics-include peoples' abilities to manage land and knowledge of ecosystems, culture, traditions/cere-monies which directly con...

The role of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in sustainably using and managing natural resources is becoming broadly recognised within some international platforms (e.g., the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). However, the support for IPLCs to continue mana...

This report explains innovative and sustianable ways of farming, particulary organic farming practices.

In 2016, the United Nations (UN) launched the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for sustainable development and a sustainable future. However, the global challenge has been to engage, connect, and empower communities, particularly young people, to both understand and deliver the 17 SDGs. In this study, we show the benefit of a...

In Australia, despite concerted government efforts over the last 30 years, Indigenous peoples’ statistically measured well-being continues to be lower than that of non-Indigenous Australians with few exceptions (child mortality and early childhood education). This is for various reasons including the ongoing impacts of dispossession, inappropriate...

Exclusion of Indigenous and local communities' connections to the rest-of-nature is a typical problem in policy-decision making. This paper highlights the key attributes of these connections and suggests evaluation pathways to mainstream them into policy development. For this, we integrate and apply the ecosystem services (ES) and human capability...

Despite frequent exposure to bushfires, cyclones and floods, remote Indigenous communities across northern Australia typically have little involvement in managing, mitigating or planning for such events. This scenario planning project explored how people in remote communities, through Indigenous ranger groups, can contribute effectively to the miti...

Chapter 2 makes the case for using systems thinking as a guiding perspective for TEEBAgriFood’s development of a comprehensive Evaluation Framework for the eco-agri-food system. Many dimensions of the eco-agri-food system create complex analytical and policy challenges. Systems thinking allows better understanding and forecasting of the outcomes of...

Northern Australia comprises by far the most fire-prone-half of a fiery continent, where fire frequencies range from annual in the tropical savannas to periodic very-extensive fire events following above-rainfall conditions in the central Australian rangelands. As illustration of the challenges facing effective fire management in Australia's 5.7 ×...

In a recent paper we set out a case for extending current and emerging ecosystem services enterprise opportunities to support sustainable land sector development in far northern Australia (Russell-Smith and Sangha 2018: The Rangeland Journal 40, 315–330. doi:10.1071/RJ18005). In that paper we illustrate very significant economic viability and envir...

Despite frequent exposure to severe natural hazards including extensive bushfires, tropical cyclones and floods, remote Indigenous communities across northern Australia typically have little engagement in managing, mitigating or planning for such hazards. The BNHCRC scenario planning project explores how remote communities can effectively and susta...

Despite being very significant components of the North’s population, especially in remoter areas, and increasingly ‘land rich’ through ongoing acquisitions and Native Title determinations, it is widely acknowledged that Indigenous people remain severely economically and socially disadvantaged. In this chapter we address the challenge of developing...

The chapter focuses first on giving voice to ongoing connections to, and the fundamental importance of, maintaining law, culture, and country, and the aspirations of Indigenous people across the North. Such connections and aspirations can be seen to differ essentially from those of non-Indigenous residents – for a start, one’s country is not real e...

This book provides a synthesis of a suite of research projects addressing the broad theme, ‘Building community resilience in northern Australia’, focused especially on remote, predominantly Indigenous (Aboriginal) communities. This research was contracted by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (BNHCRC), Melbourne, in late 2...

The release of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Change agreement highlighted the importance of global sustainability internationally. Here, we outline a vision and strategies for developing northern Australia that demonstrate how a focus on sustainable prosperity can both expand historical approaches and curren...

Chapter 2 makes the case for using systems thinking as a guiding perspective for TEEBAgriFood’s development of a comprehensive Evaluation Framework for the eco-agri-food system. Many dimensions of the eco-agri-food system create complex analytical and policy challenges. Systems thinking allows better understanding and forecasting of the outcomes of...

We explore sustainable land sector opportunities for Australia's 1.2 million km² northern savanna rangelands where extensive beef cattle pastoralism is the predominant contemporary land use. Our focal region is characterised by mean annual rainfall exceeding 600 mm, ecologically bountiful wet season water availability followed by 6-8 months of surf...

Economic values of coastal and marine systems in the NT

In this paper, the adsorbent for the removal of hexavalent Cr (Chromium) from aqueous solutions has been prepared by modifying chitosan composite with EP (Epichlorohydrin) or GA (Glutaraldehyde). The modified cross-linked chitosan was characterized by SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) and FT-IR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy). Batch adso...

The TEEBAgriFood ‘Scientific and Economic Foundations’ report addresses the core theoretical issues and controversies underpinning the evaluation of the nexus between the agri-food sector, biodiversity and ecosystem services and externalities including human health impacts from agriculture on a global scale. It argues the need for a ‘systems thinki...

Risks and challenges associated with recurring natural hazards (especially wet season cyclonic and flooding events; dry season extensive savanna fires) facing remote north Australian Indigenous communities are well recognised. Less well appreciated are longer-term challenges required for building community resilience in the face of responding to na...

Despite calls by various international agencies, considerable work is still required to understand and incorporate the importance of earth’s ecosystems for informing public policies. Savannas comprise nearly one third of global terrestrial ecosystems and support many local and Indigenous communities, but the value of their ecosystem services (ES) i...