'Rewilding' Australia: not only do we need the outback, the outback needs us

Even in vast natural ecosystems, the fate and condition of nature lies in the hands of the people who live on, know, respect and manage that land

Only a small number of vast natural landscapes remain on Earth - wild regions where ecological processes function normally and movements of wildlife remain largely unfettered by the fragmentation of habitats. These few places include the Amazon basin, the boreal forests of Canada, tundra of Siberia, the Sahara Desert, and the Australian Outback.

It has become increasingly apparent to modern science what Indigenous people have understood for centuries: that even in these large, natural ecosystems, the fate and condition of nature lies in the hands of the people who live on, know, respect and manage that land.