Organizing regionally for natural resource management in Australia: Reflections on agency and government

Abstract

The Australian government is leading efforts to effect nationwide changes in how natural resources are managed, specifically the country's agricultural areas and rangelands. The focus is organizing regionally, with community-based groups planning for and managing the delivery of millions of dollars of resource management works. This paper analyses these arrangements from the ideal of democratic decentralization, drawing on interviews with key informants in two Australian states (Victoria and Western Australia) and participant observation. Centring the analysis on representation, accountability, fairness and the secure transfer of power indicates that this ideal is far from being achieved. Although unachieved, opportunities for agency by some, but not local, people exist and continue to develop. Given the strong directing roles of the Australian government in these regionalizing efforts, the paper concludes with comments about the potentially important roles for governments in progressing democratic decentralization.