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Improvement of Forecast Communication and Use between Indigenous and Governmental Groups in Australia: Managing Fire in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands under Conditions of Interannual Climate Variability

Progess Report 2003 - 2004 (pdf)
Progress Report 2004-2005 (pdf)

Principal Investigator

Benjamin S. Orlove, Professor
Department of Environmental Science and Policy
University of California
One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616-8576
(530)752-6756 fax: 530/752-3350
bsorlove@ucdavis.edu

Time Period

February 1, 2003 – January 31, 2006 (3 years)

This project seeks to explore and remedy the barriers to communication that exist between traditional and scientific interannual climate forecasting. It proposes an analytical framework and a set of methodologies to examine three types of obstacles to communication (linguistic, conceptual and organizational differences). It integrates remote sensing with social science methods such as ethnography and interviews. It indicates a process to develop and evaluate projects that will address the obstacles, and to disseminate the results of these projects. More concretely, it examines the use of forecasts to direct land management decisions in the fire-prone savannahs of northern Australia. In this region, Indigenous (Aboriginal) and Euro-Australian land managers use forecasts to set the time and level of controlled fires. These fires reduce the fuel load so that catastrophic fires are avoided, and they also serve to manage vegetation (to increase fodder and support wildlife, and also to conserve biodiversity through maintaining the mosaic of different types of plant communities). Indigenous and Euro-Australians often misunderstand each other’s behaviors and rationales for behaviors. However, each group would benefit by learning from the other and by coordinating their forecast use and fire decisions more closely. The research will focus on three sites to consider a range of different relations between the two groups and a range of environmental parameters. The project will establish close cooperation with two Australian institutions, the School of Geography and Environmental Science at Monash University in Melbourne and the Tropical Savannah Cooperative Research Centre in Darwin.

Link

Indigenous Weather Knowledge, http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/