In this essay, I will be discussing the ecosystem management of crocodiles, which have been living in the ecosystems in Australia. There are two types of crocodiles, the fresh water and the salt water crocodile. The management of these, would be things like having management plans which have been put into place to help the local Indigenous people maintain the waters ecosystems that have these crocodiles in them. The essay will then also then discuss how they the crocodiles have been viewed through the colonist concept of wilderness. Additionally, it will also discuss how the crocodiles had been viewed by the conservationists when it comes to the concept of wilderness conservation. Finally, then it will then discuss what some of the shortcomings have been when it comes to both the ecosystem management and the local Indigenous people in the area and others.
Firstly, when it comes to the colonialist’s view of wilderness, the crocodiles, have been viewed in a way that they were that made the animals become an object which became an endangered species. They had then been then become protected because they were thought to be going to phased out through time. The crocodile was then being viewed as an idea that was connected to nature and the human were the idea that had been connected to culture when it comes to the concept of wilderness. This was because the animal was thought to be less superior to that of the human. This is because the crocodile was one of the first massive creature to walk on the land. They did not have any interaction with any humans all when the continent had been formed. Then when the humans came to the land, the crocodile was viewed as being a pest on the land and was then killed off. They have thought to be an endangered species when the Europeans first saw the wilderness there was a view that it was one that had never been touched. It could be seen that the wilderness concept here was that it was a European way of thinking about the landscape of the continent of Australia as being untouched. In that it was free from the human presence. Then according to Plumwood, who defined our wilderness experience as being a quest for the presence of wild nature and not then the absence of the human being then creates the conceptual presence of the wild. It was both in the wilderness and the spaces that are closer to home. This may be what society need to help end the opposition that comes between the dualism of nature and culture. Then the garden and the wilderness can come and recognize our selves at last as at home and both (1998). Then Plumwood had also then said that it was the crocodile that had then also provided society with a viewpoint that could then help us the human to see ourselves in ecological terms; help us towards a theory of ourselves in thoroughgoing evolutionary democratic terms, disrupting our view of ourselves. it can be said that We need to respond rationally to the environmental crisis by then adopting a much more ecologically democratic position. From such a viewpoint, we can love fellow humans without then understanding ourselves as being food is the subject of horror as well as humor. An ecological animalism would then acknowledge this and then the farm principles would then be emphasizing the human animal mutuality, equality and reciprocity in the food web. All living creatures are food, and much more than food. In a good human life, we must gain our food in such a way as to acknowledge our kinship with those whom we make our food, which does not forget the more than food that every one of us is, and which positions us reciprocally as food for others. A conceptualization of ourselves with in the ecological terms that has had many aspects behind it, but then one of the most fundamental idea is to begin to think of ourselves in terms of our usefulness when it comes to the other elements that are a part of our ecosystems, in the same way as the other components. One of the most basic ways is to begin to think of ourselves humbly as food for others. (1998).
Then, however on the other hand, when it comes to the conversation management view of the crocodiles that are in Australia and around the world, some of the conservatives believe that the crocodiles had then been thought to be a living version of the dinosaur that once then roamed around for many reasons. They had also been thought to be the one of the animals within the ecosystem that had been protecting the many other wildlife that also then live in the water as well from being killed off. Then, however, the crocodiles had been viewed as the largest reptile that was known to man. In Australia, there are two types of crocodile that live within the ecosystems within the northern parts of Australia. One of these species is the Estuarine Crocodile, otherwise known as the Australian Saltwater Crocodile, which is the largest species in the Crocodile family system. For thousands of years no other animal has ever threatened the crocodiles. The other species, the Freshwater crocodile, which lives in the fresh or slightly salty water. They can be found from the Kimberly region. The Management Program through incentive driven conservation, explicitly encourages management practices that favor the Saltwater Crocodile and protects wetland habitats beyond the boundaries of parks and reserves.
There is then some other conservationists that then believe that the crocodiles were then relatives of the dinosaurs. Crocodiles are the largest reptiles on the landscape that has been known to man. There are two types of crocodile in Australia. Furthermore, crocodiles are semi-aquatic reptiles that are anatomically and physiologically distinct from mammals and birds, where most animal production experience has been gained. Of importance, crocodilians are ectotherms (or “cold-blooded” animals), a trait they share with fish, amphibians and other reptiles. They have a brain heavily developed for the sense of smells rather than higher learning (Richardson. 2002).
One of these species is the Estuarine Crocodile, otherwise known as the Australian Saltwater Crocodile, which is one of the largest species in the Crocodile family. For thousands of years no other animal has ever threatened the crocodiles. The other species, the Freshwater crocodile, lives in fresh or slightly salty water. They can be found from the Kimberley region in Western Australia across the top of northern Australia and down most of the Queensland coast. For thousands of years no other animal threatened these species, they ruled the wetlands and rivers of the world, but when guns were invented, humans had the ability to hunt and kill crocodiles in great numbers. In Western Australia, the top of northern Australia and down most of the Queensland coast in areas such as Cairns. There have been many ways to manage the crocodiles that is being done by the conservationists, that being the farms that have been producing the young crocodiles as commercial aspect. Then, however the salt water crocodile had been more affective because they had open access a resource in Australia, they had been the species that were becoming endangered. This is then resulted in both WA and NT fully protecting the crocodiles then Queensland followed in 1974 (Letts,1987). Then there was an idea that recreational harvesting and hunting for commercial use had then banned. There is need for permits to be issued this because the saltwater crocodile has gone from almost being extinct in the 1970s to now being widespread in large numbers so that it is not of any conservation concern.
But then, however, the Saltwater crocodiles have had an ecological and cultural value, but they also have been a management challenge due to different opinions on their place in the wild. They are spiritually important to some Aboriginal communities and a Territory icon, but they are also a dangerous predator. Use of crocodiles is managed by the Northern Territory Government to make sure it is sustainable for the long term. This is because the management has these aims for all the following: to maintain a large and healthy population of saltwater crocodiles living in their natural habitat to promote the saltwater crocodile as a natural resource that has economic use and benefit if used sustainably to respect the cultural values of saltwater crocodiles to manage concentrated numbers in areas where there is a high risk to people, livestock and pets to provide crocodile awareness and information in parks and many other places.
Saltwater crocodiles are now recognized as a valuable commercial resource, generating wealth and employment which promotes their conservation. The Management Program no longer has as its core aim the recovery of the Saltwater Crocodile population, but rather the continued growth of a prosperous, sustainable crocodile farming industry as the key driver for Saltwater Crocodile conservation. The tourism value of crocodiles both in the wild and in captivity also generates significant economic activity. Economic benefits from crocodile harvest and tourism value flow to landowners and particularly indigenous communities, encouraging the protection and management of wetland habitats.
Then when it comes to some of the failures in terms of the shortcomings that came about regarding to the ecosystem management and the indigenous people, where thing like the farming of the crocodiles was somehow seen as a failure, in that the farming of the crocodiles, included the males which were being hunted for their skins and the females for their eggs. So, the female could produce young ones. There have been many management programs that have been introduced for the farming of the crocodiles which had been protecting the beast. These approaches had then been motived by the lack of the economic incentives that had been started to conserve the wildlife species of the crocodile that are on the land. Then, however, the Indigenous landholders will obtain no benefits from the wildlife that have been.
Then in conclusion the crocodile could then be viewed as being a predator and endangered. So, the local governments that have put the management plans in place in the northern territory should then be keeping control of these animals so that there are no more attacks on the human beings and other animals. There needs to be more tracking done when it comes to the conservation practices. There are many other ideas that would assist the local indigenous people when they are identifying and tagging the rough crocodiles.