Planning for biodiversity and economic development on the Tiwi Islands

About the project

The culturally significant and biodiverse Tiwi Islands lie 60 km north of Darwin. The islands are Aboriginal Freehold land, with the Tiwi Land Council (TLC) having authority for natural resource and land-use planning. The TLC is seeking to expand development of 10% of the Islands’ landmass to support viable economic opportunities for Tiwi people, but without compromising the Islands’ unique biodiversity values. This is a complex planning challenge that requires tools to integrate competing and complementary goals of biodiversity conservation, economic development, and maintenance of cultural and social values to achieve effective solutions that reflect Tiwi priorities.

The proposed project is a partnership between the TLC and university-based researchers to develop models and tools needed to support Tiwi decisions about future land use. Our team has an outstanding mixture of experience and expertise in working with Indigenous landholders (Ayre, Hadden, Murphy) and in advanced biodiversity modelling and conservation planning tools (Elith, Guillera-Arroita, Nicholson, Murphy). The proposal has two elements: 1) A planning meeting on the Tiwi Islands, bringing together key stakeholders and knowledge-holders from the Tiwi Islands, the NT government, and interested NGOs and philanthropic funding bodies, to develop priorities for research and funding to support it; and 2) Funding for a research assistant to gather all available data in preparation for a larger project, and begin analyses for Tiwi decision-makers. If funded, this could develop into a new interdisciplinary research program with long-term benefits to the Tiwi people.

Project activities

This project has two elements. We will hold a planning workshop on the Tiwi Islands (and perhaps follow-up meetings in Darwin as needed for funding discussions), bringing together key stakeholders and knowledge holders from the Tiwi Land Council, the NT government (the NT Government Land Development Corporation, the Department of the Chief Minister, and Department of Land Resource Management), and interested NGOs and philanthropic funding bodies (e.g. The Nature Conservancy and the Ian Potter Foundation, both of whom are aware of the project and have expressed interest in it). The meeting aims to develop research priorities and funding to support it. The second element is to fund a research assistant (RA) to gather all available data in preparation for a larger project and identify key knowledge gaps, and to develop early proof-of-concept analyses for their utility for Tiwi decision-makers.

Industry outcomes

The research program will provide a template for integrated planning on Australia’s vast Indigenous estates, where similar issues exist as on the Tiwi Islands. This project is essentially the seed for the larger envisaged program. It will provide grounding and preparation for the larger project, by developing relationships and understanding, establishing base data and models, and seeking out funding for a long-term research program.