Surveys across millions of hectares of central Australia will be used to inform threatened species recovery plan

Aboriginal rangers will use a new bilingual tracking app to record sightings of signs of bilby habitation in a new “bilby blitz” program.

Twenty ranger groups from organisations in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, including the Central Land Council, Kimberley Land Council, Central Desert Native Title Services, Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa and the Ngaanyatjarra Council, will take part in the survey, which was launched at the CLC ranger camp at Hamilton Downs near Alice Springs on Tuesday.

The rangers will log signs of the greater bilby or Macrotis lagotis, including tracks, scats, diggings and burrows, in the new Tracks app, developed for the CLC.

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It is available in English and Warlpiri and will be expanded to include other central desert languages, such as Pintupi, Warlmanpa and Arrernte, in the next 12 months.

Craig Le Rossignol, coordinator of the Tjuwanpa or Hermannsburg ranger group, said the app allowed Aboriginal people to store and share knowledge about their country, some of which, like the bilby count, would be used to inform western science. Sensitive cultural information would not be shared.

He said the process of collecting, recording and sharing information was just as valuable for Aboriginal people, who store information “in the heads.”

“The key for Aboriginal life is continuation,” he said. “The key is that information, that continued information, that keeps us going.”

Le Rossignol, an Arrernte speaker, said you still needed tracking skills to be able to use the app.

“Normally all of us bush people sort of have that built into us but now we have got it in a tablet form that we hold,” he said. “Once it’s translated [into other languages] and put into the app as well, that’s going to help my people so much because people will be talking with not so much of the scientific jargon.”

Greater bilbies are listed as vulnerable by the Australian government.

The baseline bilby surveys conducted by the ranger groups across millions of hectares of central Australia will be used to inform the national bilby threatened species recovery plan, which is being developed with input from Indigenous rangers.

It is the first time a threatened species recovery plan has been co-designed with Aboriginal knowledge and management practices.

The CLC hopes Indigenous involvement will ensure the recovery plan is fully funded and implemented. Investigations by Guardian Australia have found that less than 40% of nationally listed threatened species have recovery plans in place, and that plans were often out of date or unimplemented.

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Josie Grant, a Warlmanpa and Warumungu speaker and ranger coordinator from the CLC, sits on the Indigenous subcommittee reporting to the commonwealth’s bilby recovery team.

“We’re protecting them through cool season burning and eradicating feral animals and weeds but, because we’re all looking after huge areas of country, we need a better handle on where our efforts will make the greatest difference,” Grant said.

Threatened species commissioner Sally Box attended the bilby blitz launch. “I am looking forward to learning first-hand about what it takes to deliver recovery actions in the remoter parts of Australia, and the role of innovation and partnerships in saving species,” Box said.

@TSCommissioner (@TSCommissioner) I am thrilled to be in the Northern Territory this week, meeting with researchers and Traditional Owners who are contributing to recovery efforts for our iconic bilby. https://t.co/I4ys9fyOBS pic.twitter.com/JIzA6BGW7o

The CLC received a one-off federal grant of $150,000 to host the bilby blitz on behalf of the Indigenous Desert Alliance.