In January 2017, the Yawuru people dedicated Stage One of the Yawuru Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) and the Walyjalajala nagulagabu birrangun buru Plan of Management for 2017-2026. Stage One of the Yawuru IPA covers 127,914 hectares and is multi-tenured - covering the Yawuru Joint-Managed Conservation Estate, including Terrestrial Conservation Parks and a Marine Park. It also covers significant cultural and environmental areas of the highly viable Roebuck Plains cattle station. The Plan of Management nominates Catgory IV and VI of the IUCN guidelines.
The Yawuru people are the Native Title holders of their land and sea - their ancestors have lived along the foreshores of Roebuck Bay, across the Pindan Plains and inland along the fringes of the Great Sandy Desert for thousands of years. Yawuru country was created and given form by Bugarrigarra and is the source of Yawuru spirit, culture and language. Yawuru relationship to country is guided by mabu buru (healthy country), mabu ngarrungunil (healthy community) and mabu liyan (good feelings). Yawuru people live on their country as an interconnected landscape by the cycle of the seasons.
The Yawuru Rangers are responsible for the big job of managing all this Yawuru land and sea country in a sustainable and holistic way. A monitoring framework will be prepared in conjunction with station management for Roebuck Plains station, to implement a sustainable grazing program so that the rangers can monitor the impact of cattle on significant wetlands and springs and make decisions to protect these areas.
Across the Yawuru IPA, the rangers will be collecting data on threatened species habitats, using camera trapping to assess numbers and the presence of feral animals, undertaking biodiversity surveys across seasons and undertaking weed mapping and control. They are building their skills and capacity by undertaking training in Conservation and Land Management, as well as working with Senior Yawuru people to transfer cultural knowledge and western scientists to build the best knowledge about Yawuru country.
