Call for government to ratify Nagoya Protocol.

That was one of the key findings of a report - titled 'Yoordaninj-bah', the Noongar Ballardong word for the coming together of diverse groups to establish a very strong bond - officially released by the Noongar Land Enterprise Group (NLE) last week.

The report was the result of a three-year project funded by Food Innovation Australia Limited to identify how Aboriginal people and their communities may benefit from the commercial production of identified Australian bush foods.

The Nagoya Protocol has so far been ratified by more than 130 countries and allows for indigenous and local communities to receive benefits through a legal framework which respects the value of traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources.

According to NLE board member Oral McGuire, the report found the Federal government needed to develop comprehensive legislation so that one set of rules apply Australia wide in order to protect the rights of Australia's First Nations people.

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"The Australian protection of intellectual property (IP) rights of sacred knowledge is fragmented, limited in protection, generally not understood well by Aboriginal communities and does not provide an incentive to share knowledge or support commercialisation of this knowledge," Mr McGuire said.

"As a result, there should be a focus on IP when developing bush produce enterprises and systems need to be put in place to provide this support.

"This support includes both the cultural process for consent and the legal process for IP protection using tools, such as trademarks."

Having strong processes in place to use sacred knowledge and access the limited legal tools available is an important process, both internally to ensure community support and externally to demonstrate consent has been sought and granted by the appropriate people.

There needs to be an interface between western law and sacred knowledge, in order for sacred knowledge to be accessed with cultural authority and consent to develop commercial enterprises to benefit the community.

Ultimately, sacred knowledge which does not have consent for commercialisation, needs to be kept secret, considering the lack of IP protections, but these would be decisions for the appropriate communities, people and elders involved.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney said she would absolutely like to see more First Nations people involved in the bush food industry.

"Australia signed the Nagoya Protocol in 2012," Mr Burney said.

"While there is currently no proposed timeframe for ratification, I understand that our domestic measures are largely consistent with the protocol and have served as models for other countries as they develop or revisit their own domestic access regimes."

However, according to University of New South Wales senior scientia lecturer Miri Raven, Queensland is the only State in Australia which has a Biosecurity Act that is truly Nagoya compliant.

As a result, non-indigenous companies can pick and choose which State they want to work with and are able to pick whichever is easiest and where they don't have to go through as many hoops.

According to Dr Raven, who is a chief investigator on a five-year Australian Research Council Discovery project around protecting and promoting indigenous knowledge, ratifying the Nagoya Protocol is a crucial move, but is just the first step.

"Australia has to then actually implement it in legislation by updating the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act," Dr Raven said.

"That way there is one set of rules governing all states equally."

Article 24 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that indigenous people have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices, including the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals.

Australian Greens Senator for WA Derinda Cox, a Yamatji-Noongar woman, said cultivating bush foods and botanicals was a rich cultural tradition and Aboriginal-led production could ensure food is grown in accordance with their traditional customs.

"It is fundamental to self determination that Aboriginal people decide how our sacred and cultural knowledge is used and shared, particularly in commercial settings," Ms Cox said.

"To achieve this, we need robust protections of ancestral intellectual property and frameworks which support elders and communities as custodians of cultural protocols.

"Without such protections, our businesses and our budding entrepreneurs are at risk of exploitation."

Research completed for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade found that in the 2020/21 financial year, more than $1 billion worth of goods and services were provided by indigenous companies to Commonwealth departments and their agencies.

The research agency also suggested there was a prospective economic value of $100b of indigenous interest to be unlocked, with indigenous botanicals accounting for possibly $30b of that.

"Yet, the Australian government does not have indigenous inclusion in its free trade agreements with its international trade partners," Ms Cox said.

"We need trade agreements that advance our national interests and promote and protect First Nations enterprises and industries.

"The inclusion of an indigenous chapter in every free trade agreement would secure the accessibility and regulation of our fledgling indigenous bush foods and botanicals industry, giving First Nations people sovereignty of these products."

Not including macadamia, seafood, crocodile, emu and kangaroo, the Australian bush produce industry is conservatively estimated to be valued at between $15 and $25 million of production annually and employs up to 1000 people.

Unfortunately, only a small proportion of that value flows back to Aboriginal people, with Aboriginal participation calculated at less than two per cent of the industry's value.

In general, the focus of the bush produce industry in Australia is on a small number of species, such as wattle seeds, lemon myrtle, sandalwood, macadamia, bush tomato and the Kakadu plum.

In 2019, for Kakadu plum, the Northern Australian Kakadu Plum Alliance (NAAKPA) harvested more than 20 tonnes of Kakadu plum fruit, with a farmgate value of $600,000, as well as an additional $156,000 of processed Kakadu plum powder.

Australian bush produce is also being grown internationally.

Australian finger limes are now grown in the US, Australian lemon myrtle is grown in Israel and the forecast for macadamia nut production in Australia is 50,770t, compared to 250,000t globally.

NLE chief executive officer Alan Beattie said market research indicated there was increasing demand from customers for produce which is demonstrably genuine with respect to its Aboriginal origin.

"It also indicated a general desire to support Aboriginal owned and operated enterprises, which included whole or part of the supply chain of primary production, warehousing, packaging and distribution operations that is entirely owned and managed by Aboriginal interests," Mr Beattie said.

"From a marketing perspective, there is a case for Aboriginal bush produce to be marketed with its unique cultural and traditional story, if appropriate, and also with the ethical story of Aboriginal grown, sourced or produced.

"Corporate organisations, who are increasingly aware of their social responsibility, may have preference for Aboriginal growers and suppliers of bush produce, which may form part of their social licence."

As part of their research for the report, NLE carried out a national consultation with Aboriginal communities across Australia, including the delivery of 10 to 12 workshops around the country, with almost 200 people participating.

According to surveys conducted during the workshops, 95pc agreed IP protection of Aboriginal cultural and sacred knowledge of bush flows was very important when developing business enterprises.

Furthermore, 93pc believed it was appropriate to commercialise some bush foods if Aboriginal people benefited, led the process and decided whether it was culturally appropriate.

Lastly, 88pc thought Aboriginal people needed more information and support to develop commercial bush food enterprises and increase participation in the industry.