There is currently no consistent national definition of a culturally significant entity, meaning they are not treated by policy-makers and conservation practitioners in the same way as other entities, like threatened species. Under Western conservation frameworks, action to monitor and protect a species is typically only triggered once a species is listed as threatened - a threshold that falls short of Traditional Custodians’ obligation to care for culturally significant entities.

In order to develop a meaningful and collaborative approach to managing culturally significant entities, Indigenous researchers, as part of a project with The Resilient Landscapes Hub, set out to establish a consistent definition of culturally significant entities and propose an approach to recognise them in national legislation, policy and strategic-planning mechanisms.

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