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Indigenous knowledges play a critical role in addressing the environmental crisis, and the United Nations system has adopted a suite of international treaties to protect and strengthen Indigenous peoples' rights, which are often described as biocultural rights. Because World Heritage Areas are nominated and monitored by UNESCO, an initial hypothesis in this study was that such areas would be subject to higher than normal standards in regard to Indigenous people's biocultural rights. By reference to the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, Australia, this research examined how the international legislative framework influences conservation practices. We held semi‐structured interviews with conservation and Indigenous local experts and compared park management practices in the Area against those used in an Indigenous Protected Area. Findings align with the literature and suggest that Indigenous and scientific knowledge systems can generate new insights for the Area and other sites. Yet, Indigenous knowledges are only marginally applied in practice. Some barriers to full participation of Indigenous people are specific to the colonial history of the area. Yet, findings point to a lack of action by Australian governments and UNESCO, and that needs to be redressed. The study calls attention to the need to support and resource Indigenous people to enable collaborative partnerships to yield significant benefits for biodiversity and protection of Country. Using interviews, we engaged with experts and Indigenous peoples in the Blue Mountains to identify how Indigenous biocultural rights could be improved for park management, biodiversity conservation, and caring for Country. We consider some of the shortcomings of the UNESCO World Heritage guidelines and implementations in the Blue Mountains. The Australian government needs to better resource and support Indigenous leadership and co‐management in the park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flies (Diptera) are one of the most important groups of insect pollinators. Families Bombyliidae (bee flies) and Syrphidae (hover flies) are globally distributed with aproximately 5000 and 6200 described species, respectively. Many studies have attempted to quantify Syrphidae diversity in natural and agricultural environments, due to their perceived value as pollinators, decomposers of organic waste and agents of pest control. However, to date, there have been only two studies of Syrphidae communities in Australia, both of which focused on arable crops. Meanwhile, there have been very few studies of Bombyliidae diversity and none in Australia, despite the fact that bombyliid diversity can be high, far exceeding that of Syrphidae in some ecosystems. We aimed to learn more about Australia's anthophilous Diptera and their diversity in agricultural and native ecosystems. Using a combination of pan trapping and observation plot surveys, we assessed bombyliid and syrphid diversity at Bilpin, New South Wales, Australia, an important horticultural area within the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. Five syrphid species made up 62% of all individuals collected, while 22 species made up the remaining 32%, including nine species of Bombyliidae. The hover fly Melangyna viridiceps alone accounted for a third of all captured specimens. The larvae of the five most commonly encountered species are all aphidophagous. As such, aphidophagous species appear to be numerically dominant, and this is consistent with previous studies in south‐east Australian agroecosystems. M. viridiceps and Triglyphus fulvicornis were frequent visitors to flowering fruit trees and may therefore contribute to the pollination of these crops. However, most visited flowers were introduced weeds or escaped crop plants. The maintenance of diverse floral resources, which may include weeds, is important for sustaining populations of aphidophagous Syrphidae, which may contribute to both pollination and pest control. As a consequence, we recommend a more tolerant approach to weed management in orchards to better facilitate the ecosystem services provided by Diptera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]