Federal government doubles Indigenous ranger program funding for FNQ

The federal government has doubled funding for the Indigenous ranger program in Far North Queensland, committing $185 million over five years to expand the ranger workforce from approximately 400 to 800 positions across the Wet Tropics, Cape York, and Torres Strait country that Traditional Owners have been managing in partnership with the government since the program began in 2007.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek announced the expansion at a ceremony in Cairns attended by ranger groups from across FNQ, describing the program as "the most cost-effective conservation investment the government makes" and noting that the ecological outcomes that Indigenous rangers deliver — weed management, feral animal control, fire management, and marine monitoring — exceeded what conventional conservation programs could achieve at equivalent funding levels because of the rangers' intimate knowledge of country and the cultural authority they hold in their communities.

The expanded program will create 400 new full-time jobs in some of Australia's most remote and economically disadvantaged communities, where the ranger employment often represents the primary source of formal employment and the connection to economic participation that delivers benefits beyond the individual — supporting family income, community infrastructure, and the social outcomes that employment stability provides in communities where welfare dependence has been the default for generations.

The Torres Strait components of the expansion also address the climate adaptation monitoring role that ranger groups in the low-lying islands have been undertaking without formal program support, providing the resources that allow systematic documentation of the sea level rise impacts that are transforming the Torres Strait's inhabited islands.

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