Indigenous rangers and Indigenous Protected Areas are at the frontline of nature protection across Australia. 

Read more about Indigenous rangers, Indigenous Protected Areas and the Country Needs People campaign here

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women play a vital role protecting nature and cultural heritage for the benefit of every Australian. This report details the achievements of women Indigenous rangers and on Indigenous Protected Areas across Australia.

Download at this link: Strong Women on Country: The success of women caring for country as Indigenous rangers and on Indigenous Protected Areas

This report brings together case studies of Indigenous Protected Areas and Indigenous rangers, finding that these programs protect nature for the benefit of all Australians. The case studies include examples of how Indigenous land and sea management can improve the environment both a local and national scale.

Download at this link: Protecting Nature for All of Us: The environmental benefits delivered by Australia’s Indigenous Protected Areas and Indigenous rangers

This national review of Indigenous ranger and Indigenous Protected areas programs has found they are transforming remote communities through creating economic opportunities in some of the most disadvantaged areas of Australia, as well as improving health and education levels.

Working for Our Country: A review of the economic and social benefits of Indigenous land and sea management

Analysis into the social return on investment of Indigenous Protected Areas in four corners of Australia have demonstrated the incredible value of Indigenous land and sea management programs on environmental, social and cultural outcomes.

This assessment found that the social outcomes of Working on Country are diverse, wide-ranging and interconnected and can be categorised according to health and wellbeing, economic, cultural and educational outcomes for the individual rangers, their families and communities.

This book is a tribute by the Australian Government to the work of Indigenous communities managing land and sea country. 

Greater Indigenous participation in caring for country activities is associated with significantly better health.  Peer reviewed medical research has identified that Ranger and IPA workers have significantly improved health outcomes on key ‘health gap’ measures such as,  Lower Body Mass Index, Less abdominal obesity, Less Diabetes, Lower blood pressure, Higher ‘good’ cholesterol levels, Lower psychological distress ratings, Lower Cardio Vascular Disease risk, Lower renal (kidney) disease.  The article in the link below is from the Medical Journal of Australia and apllied sophisticated analyses controlling for other influences.  Read the research article here

Other work has found also that in people actively engaged in Ranger work the instance of substance abuse including alcohol related problems was significantly reduced. 

This book draws on a diversity of perspectives to document a significant social and environmental movement that is quietly gathering momentum across this vast Indigenous estate. This series of essays, drawn from an unusual collaboration between university researchers and Indigenous land owners, tells a little-known story about Aboriginal people who are living on, working on and caring for the lands and seas that they own and manage. The ongoing struggles by Indigenous people to conserve and rehabilitate the outstanding natural and cultural values of their ancestral lands deserve wide recognition and acclaim.

Link to the book here

A report which aims to understand, measure and value the social, economic and cultural changes generated through the On-Country programs of KJ, a Martu organisation that operates in several Western Australian (WA) desert communities. 

Read the KJ Social Return on Investment report here