Invasive species threaten Indigenous Aussie lands near our cities, but are less of a problem in more remote areas

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-05-28 19:00

Australia; International; NT

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Australia has both disproportionately high and disproportionately low numbers of invasive species on Indigenous-owned land, depending on where those lands are located, according to a study by international scientists, including an Australian. The team looked at the problem of invasive species on Indigenous lands around the world, and found most of the world's Indigenous-owned areas with high numbers of invasives are in Australia,  particularly the eastern states. Indigenous lands close to cities or with main roads nearby tend to have high numbers of invasive species because agriculture and infrastructure tend to help them spread. These are also the places where land management by Indigenous Aussies has been most compromised, the authors say. By contrast, Indigenous peoples are at the forefront of invasive species control in more remote areas, such as those in central and northwestern Australia, the experts add. Here, invasive species numbers are generally low, although invasive grasses and other plant species spread by the pastoral industry are starting to dominate large areas of remote tropical and arid Australia.