People involved		Community Aid Abroad (CAA) / Overseas Service Bureau (OSB) Due to time constraints the meeting with these two organisations was combined as one in the offices of OSB. The meeting was chaired by the Director of the volunteer programme in OSB (Australian Volunteers Abroad), Megs Alston, who invited Charles Lane to commence proceedings by introducing the Delegation and explaining Pilotlight's interest and role in the Exchange process. This was followed by a presentation by Jim Reddon from CAA who was an AVA volunteer. He described CAA's overseas policy objectives that are based on a vision of a fairer world in which people control their own lives in which their basic rights are achieved and the environment is sustained. As part of Oxfam International, CAA has launched a campaign for Basic Human Rights for All in which the first advocay theme is land. CAA pressures national and international bodies in support of Native Title and provides aid to the National Indigenous Working Group and Australians for Native Title. It participates in a process for coordination of non-government organisations and collaborates with the Australian Confederation of Trade Unions and ACOS. Through these links it hopes to influence the views and actions of non-Aboriginal Australians to become sympathetic to Native Title and reconciliation of Aboriginal aspirations.   In a presentation by OSB staff it was explained how OSB provides manpower assistance to communities in Australia and abroad. The one time active East African programme has almost closed down and both delegates and OSB were looking to the Exchange as a possible prompt to commence with new intitiatives in the region. It was agreed that OSB would follow up any requests from delegates when Africa programme staff next visit the region.   Justices Ron Merkel and Robert French At the kind inviation of Justice Ron Merkel, Charles Lane, Jill Reichstein and lawyer delegate Ben Lobulu joined he and Justice Robert French for lunch in his chambers at the Federal Court in Melbourne. Conversation focused on Native Title issues and we were able to discuss recent events surrounding the Hindmarsh Island High Court judgement. Justices Merkel and French were interested to explore some difference in jurisprudence between Australia and East Africa. The whole question of Aboriginality was also explored as Justice Merkel was giving judgement that very day on a challenge by Aboriginal people in Tansmania to the Aboriginality of some of those people who had been elected to the ATSIC Board. His judgement later confirmed the suggestion he made that this was not a matter for the courts to decide as it was a matter for Aboriginal society to resolve taking into account the issues of descent, self-perception and community acceptence of an individual's Aboriginal status.   Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) After having visited Uluru and Kakadu national parks on their travels it was no surprise that the Delegation wanted to visit ACF (also Victorian National Parks Association) and meet with staff to discuss its approach to conservation. For many delegates the chance to hear more about what they regard as 'responsible' and 'sympathetic' conservation in which local people enjoy rights of ownership, a role in management, and enjoy the benefits that can accrue, was most strategic. Nearly all of their communities live near conservation areas that were once their traditional grazing lands, and are now forced to bear many of the costs that this proximity brings. It was particularly poignant for Matei olle Timan who is the national MP for Ngorongoro district in which 40,000 of his constituents live within the famed Ngorongoro Conservation Area where they are aggrieved at the way they are treated by the administration.   From its small beginnings in the 1960s ACF has evolved to become Australia's most influential community environmental organisation. It's purpose is to promote a 'conservation ethic' to care for the enormous sweep and splendour of life that includes Homo Sapiens. From this perspective it seeks to approach other species and their environments with humility and without arrogance. It sees its role as the spreading and promoting of this ethic into the Australian community and gaining acceptance that the earth and its resources is held in trust for future generations, there is respect for the separate and inherent rights of other living things to exist, conservation should bring long term benefits in terms of basic needs, greater efficiency of resource use, and generally more stability for people.   ACF is distinguished from many other conservation organisations in that it actively supports the rights of indigenous people to own, occupy and manage areas of major cultural significance, including unalienated crown land, national parks, marine parks, wilderness and other areas managed as reserves throughout Australia.   With respect to Aboriginal ownership of such lands, ACF supports the use of management arrangements similar to those in place at Commonwealth managed national parks in the Northern Territory such as Uluru and Kakadu, including provision for broad community input into plans for management and the inclusion of conservation interests on Boards of Management which will have as its members a majority of Aboriginal people.   ACF supports the on-going process of consultation with Aboriginal people about the identification, declaration and management of land for nature conservation purposes.   ACF supports the continued right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to hunt, fish and gather food for subsistence or cultural purposes, and that where these activities take place in national parks or reserves, this is done in accordance with appropriate management strategies that might, for example, include the protection of an endangered species.   During our meeting we agreed to send ACF a selection of books and papers that will provide some background to the problems facing indigenous pastoral peoples in Africa in relation to the conservation of wildlife, and write about our experience of the Exchange for consideration as an article for ACF's journal, Habitat. We offered to link ACF with "Bushmeet", the International Institute for Environment and Development's internet email discussion group, and it is hoped that ACF will link up to the Exchange website.