Australia\u2019s Murray-Darling Basin is beset with complex issues in natural resource management (NRM), particularly on private lands.<\/p>\n
Addressing these complexities requires applied ecological research, local knowledge, access to research sites, and collaboration and effective relationships between researchers, organisations and landholders.<\/p>\n
First Nations peoples and their knowledge could contribute significantly to address these post-colonial NRM complexities.<\/p>\n
In recent research, my co-authors and I examined past collaborations between First Nations knowledge holders and Western researchers engaged NRM research on public and private lands across Australian.<\/p>\n
Three of this paper\u2019s authors were invited by a group of farmers, landholders and community members to provide advice on how to address local NRM issues on private lands within the broader context of declining engagement between government agencies and research institutions with rural communities and landholders in the NSW Mid-Murray region of the Murray-Darling Basin.<\/p>\n
We identified barriers to improving biodiversity conservation and NRM research in the region, including the absence of the use of local First Nations knowledge to address NRM issues.<\/p>\n
We explored a community of practice as a way to improve relationships and collaboration between local communities that include farmers and First Nations peoples, government agencies and research institutions in undertaking NRM research on private land.<\/p>\n
This highlighted the need for broader engagement with First Nations peoples and local rural community in participation and leadership roles in NRM research.<\/p>\n
We also explored how First Nations peoples could best participate in culturally safe and respectful ways that acknowledged their interests in co-designing and participating in relevant and effective NRM research.<\/p>\n
Finally, we propose a Hybrid Research Model that incorporates First Nations and Western perspectives to improve outcomes from NRM research.<\/p>\n