Caring for country:: community-based management of Mimosa pigra on Aboriginal lands in the Northern Territory, Australia

The community-based mimosa, Mimosa pigra L., management program on Aboriginal lands of the Top End of the Northern Territory emerged in 1998 and has been successful in controlling 7,000 hectares of mimosa. The program, implemented and maintained by Aboriginal people and facilitated by the Northern Land Council's Caring for Country Unit, has established strong partnerships with an array of government and non-government organisations. After operating strongly for five years, Aboriginal land-management groups are broadening the focus of their mimosa management programs to tackle other land-management issues. Many Aboriginal groups are developing land-management enterprises to contribute to ongoing mimosa-management programs. The challenge is to further develop these enterprises and explore additional land-management enterprise options. A participatory program evaluation process is now required to identify critical program issues (both positive and negative), devise operational responses to those issues, and incorporate alterations into the program-management framework. Aboriginal people have achieved remarkable mimosa-management outcomes and a community-driven evaluation process will ensure the program continues to achieve environmental and social benefits in the future.