To see Roger delivering this presentation, go to our Youtube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbq2jLUX8us

1. Reducing feral camel impacts across remote
Australia:
Australian Feral Camel Management Project
21st November 2013, Parliament House Theatre, Canberra

2. Session One: From Science to Solution
Speakers:
Tom Calma, AO – Chair Ninti One
Glenn Edwards – Northern Territory Government
Quentin Hart – Ninti One, Australian Feral Camel Management
Project
Roger Smith – Chair Australian Feral Camel Management Project
Steering Committee

3. Forming a
successful and
enduring AFCMP
collaboration
Roger Smith

4. The need for collaboration:
• Dealing with a highly mobile pest animal
that moves easily across all land
tenures > coordinated action required
• Different perspectives about the way to
manage feral camels – e.g. commercial
use
• Need to account for broader community
concerns – e.g. animal welfare (RSPCA
involvement)

5. The need for collaboration:
• The AFCMP did not have the same
legislative basis for land access as
programs such as other national-scale
large feral herbivore management
programs such as the Brucellosis and
Tuberculosis Eradication campaign
• Achieving informed landholder consent for
feral camel management was critical to the
success of the AFCMP, and there needed
to be good collaborative processes for this

6. Motivation for collaboration:
• There was strong motivation across all
landholders (Aboriginal, pastoral,
conservation) to do something about
feral camels…but how was this best
done?
• Needed effective collaborations to allow
these discussions to take place and to
oversee rollout of the agreed
management approaches

7. Project partners
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Alinytjara Wilurara NRM Board (South Australia)
Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (APY Lands)
Australian Wildlife Conservancy
Biosecurity SA
Central Land Council
CSIRO
Department of Agriculture and Food WA
Department of Environment and Conservation (WA)
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (SA)
Department of Environment and Resource Management (Qld)
Department of Natural Resources, Environment, the Arts and Sport (NT)
Flinders University
Kimberley Land Council
Natural Resource Management Board NT Inc
Ngaanyatjarra Council Inc (WA)
Ninti One Ltd
NT Cattlemen’s Association
Pila Nguru Aboriginal Corporation (WA)
Rangelands NRM (WA)
South Australian Arid Lands NRM Board

9. AFCMP governance structure:
• Necessarily comprehensive to account
for the need to:
allow involvement of all landholder
interests and broader stakeholders
consult within and between jurisdictions
ensure good exchange between policy,
operational and monitoring components
of the project

11. Features of good collaboration:
• Craft simple, outcome-oriented goals
• Consistently review team/project goals
• Discuss how the team’s goals tie into the
organisation’s
• Constantly clarify roles
• Explicitly state responsibilities
• Explicitly identify who’s responsible for
each decision and how it will be made
• Go into the conflict zone, respectfully
• Be honest about mistakes
• Create systems for sharing information

12. Features of good collaboration:
• We believe that we achieved these features:
 clear goals (feral camel density targets and capacity
building for future management)
 annual review of performance against goals
 agreed investment guidelines and annual workplans
 consistent messages (e.g. website and involvement
of national manager with all AFCMP groups)
 respected the legitimacy of everyone's views
 operated at a strategic level, focusing on outcomes
 Identified common ground and built consensus
 for complex issues, use smaller working groups out
of session to build consensus positions

13. AFCMP Steering Committee
• Inclusive structure and regular
opportunities for input:
 20 project partners; most with direct SC
involvement
 SC collaboration included 5 govts, 6
Aboriginal orgs, Rangelands Alliance,
RSPCA, NTCA, ACIA, 2 abattoirs and Ninti
One
 3-5 meetings per year
 interaction between SC and operational
(NOG, SOGs) and technical (MERI)
groups

14. AFCMP Steering Committee
• Agenda items included:
partner/stakeholder reports
strategic issues – e.g. seasonal
conditions and implications, crossborder collaboration, project
governance, annual planning and
reporting
risk management – participatory and
reviewed at every meeting
communications

15. The future:
• Many formal and informal collaborations
established
• Examples of collaborations and
approaches being applied to management
of other LFHs (e.g. feral horse cull on
Tempe Downs in Aug 2013)
• We hope that AFCMP collaborations can
be maintained and will keep looking for
resourcing options

17. www.nintione.com.au