Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion, will launch the publication of Looking After Country: the NAILSMA I-Tracker story this evening.

“The North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA) has been an important advocate for the Indigenous land and sea management sector across Northern Australia,” the Minister said.

“I-Tracker is a flagship project for North Australia that supports natural and cultural resource monitoring, research and management activities using digital technology.”

I-Tracker uses digital apps which have been developed by NAILSMA in partnership with land and sea managers. These apps are loaded onto hand held computers with GPS, camera and voice recording functions which are taken on land and sea patrols and record data electronically. This data is downloaded to the office computers, where the information can be viewed on a map and used to plan and evaluate ranger efforts.

Minister Scullion said that innovations like I-Tracker make a vital contribution to the expansion and development of the Indigenous land and sea management sector and the excellent work undertaken by Indigenous rangers.

“More than 25 Indigenous ranger groups in north Australia are now involved in the NAILSMA I-Tracker program which has also been recognised with a National Banksia Award in 2012,” the Minister said.

“I commend the efforts of the organisation and I am happy to officially launch this book telling this important story.”