Building and Managing Resilience in Community-Based NRM Groups: An Australian Case Study

Abstract

The purpose of most community-based natural resource management (NRM) groups in Australia is to improve and restore local environments, yet increasingly they face a range of challenges that impact on their capacity to do this effectively. How groups meet these challenges is thus of critical importance. This article explores these issues using a conceptual framework derived from recent theoretical work relating to resilience to change in socioecological systems (Walker et al. 2006). Using three properties said to determine system dynamics—resilience, adaptability, and transformability—this study explores the attributes of individuals and groups that help community-based NRM groups adapt and respond proactively to change. Data utilized are from a large qualitative study of volunteers in community-based NRM groups in Queensland, Australia. Using these data, we begin to develop factors that act to enhance or erode a group's adaptive capacity, and highlight issues of importance to group resilience in the contemporary context.