To support Aboriginal people to connect with country and share their culture, the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) has developed a policy and procedures for cultural burning on land managed by the PWS.
For tens of thousands of years Aboriginal cultural burning practices have been undertaken, and they have helped in shaping the iconic Tasmanian landscape we know and appreciate today.
To demonstrate the recognition of this rich cultural and environmental understanding, the Tasmanian Government committed to developing cultural burning policy and procedures to support Tasmanian Aboriginal communities to engage in cultural burning practices.
These new procedures enable the Tasmanian Aboriginal people to conduct cultural burns on country within acceptable risk limits.
“Throughout the development of the new Cultural Burning Policy and Procedures, a significant amount of consultation with Tasmanian Aboriginal people, Tasmanian Aboriginal organisations and other key stakeholders was undertaken,” PWS Director (Landscape Programs) Mark Bryce said.
“We are pleased that such an important policy and procedure framework for Tasmania is now complete.”
The new policy and procedures demonstrate an important step in supporting the PWS to manage the estate at a landscape level through the reduction of fuel loads.
Three officers will be employed to work in PWS regions in order to successfully execute the new policy and procedures.
The officers will provide a point of contact for Aboriginal people and Aboriginal organisations so they can collaboratively identify and assess areas suitable for, and to undertake, cultural burning on land managed by the PWS.
Read more: https://parks.tas.gov.au/about-us/fire-management