Arid Lands Environmental Council and Indigenous Desert Alliance recognised nationally for buffel fight
Two key players in the longstanding fight against buffel grass in the Red Centre have recognised nationally for their work – but they say the fight’s still not over. Find out more.
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A Red Centre environmental group has been recognised for its contribution in the fight against buffel grass – but the chief executive of the organisation says there’s still more work to be done “turn the tide” in the fight against the weed.
Both the Arid Lands Environment Centre and the Indigenous Desert Alliance have been recognised for their work in the fight against buffel grass by receiving the 2024 Froggatt Award for community advocacy on September 3.
Receiving the award – given out by the Invasive Species Council – was a “really nice surprise”, Arid Lands Environment Centre chief executive Adrian Tomlinson said.
“This is an award to all of these people into our community, and I was really happy that ALEC shared this award with Indigenous Desert Alliance,” he said.
“Now we have the job over the next years to come up with a really good weed management plan that talks about how we will turn this weed declaration into a really solid management plan that includes everybody.
“We all know that buffel grass is a huge threat to arid lands, so we’re looking at another dangerous fire season now.”
Invasive Species Council CEO Andrew Cox said the Froggatt Award is named after Walter Froggatt, who was “a lone voice fighting to stop the introduction of the cane toad”.
“We congratulate the Arid Lands Environment Centre and the members of the Indigenous Desert Alliance for their relentless campaigning efforts which led to buffel grass being declared a weed in the Northern Territory,” he said.
“Buffel grass is undeniably one of the most severe invasive threats to the environment and culture in Central Australia and we are hopeful this is the first step to opening the door to much needed action and funding.”
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