Resource Management In Australia Research Articles

Managing biodiversity on private land: Directions for collaboration through reconciliation ecology

SummaryNatural resource management in Australia is beset with ‘wicked’ problems: diminishing biodiversity, increasing soil erosion, spreading soil salinity and global climate change all impact private landholders across rural Australia. These problems highlight the complexity of biodiversity conservation, and the need for inclusive, respectful approaches that enable the participation of rural communities, private landholders and government agencies to effectively manage biodiversity on public and private lands. To address these problems, some landholders, rural communities and other stakeholders are seeking evidence‐based solutions through directly applicable research. In this paper, we identify current barriers to such research and highlight principles and processes for co‐designing and managing research based on mutual trust, respect, power sharing and acceptance of various knowledge systems, as embodied in the theory of reconciliation ecology. We suggest that a ‘community of practice’ approach could assist in establishing effective deliberative relations as a basis for active collaboration in natural resource management research to address these complex problems.

Is there public desire for a federal takeover of water resource management in Australia?

Multi-jurisdictional water governance issues remain an ongoing challenge in transboundary and other water resource areas. Achieving coordinated and effective governance at the local, state, federal and international levels remains critical for good water governance. Under Australia's 1901 Constitution, states have the power to allocate water resources. To date, water resources in numerous areas have been overallocated to consumptive use, causing increasing environmental sustainability challenges. This is particularly prevalent in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), which spans four states and one territory, posing significant governance challenges. Due to the difficulties of changing and coordinating water management across multiple states, a growing number of Australians are calling for a complete Federal takeover of water resources through constitutional amendment. To change the Constitution, a double majority vote would be required, namely from both the Australian public nationally and from a majority of voters in a majority of the states. This study investigates the Australian public's desire for a Commonwealth takeover of water resources, focussing specifically on the MDB. It finds only lukewarm support for a Commonwealth takeover of water resources, with less than four in ten participants supporting the proposal. Overall, the ACT and South Australia are the only areas with a slight majority in favour of the takeover. One of the strongest predictors of support was location (such as living in a MDB state, and especially South Australia), but other significant factors included age, education, children, home ownership and trust in the Federal government and university researchers. We conclude that a complete water resource takeover by Federal government is highly unlikely to occur, but offer insights into other areas where increasing Federal intervention is warranted.

Australian high-level public policy preparedness for population-based triage during the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic brought attention to scarce clinical resource allocation via secondary population-based triage (S-PBT) throughout the international healthcare community. Experiences overseas highlighted the importance of coordinated and consistent approaches to allocating resources when facing overwhelming demand, particularly for critical care. Noting the importance of consistency and the system of devolved governance deployed in Australia, this study aimed to identify and analyse sources of high-level policy that affect Australia’s health system preparedness for the operationalisation of S-PBT. Of the 39 documents reviewed, 17 contained potential references to S-PBT. There was a lack of clear recommendations and guidance to inform S-PBT operationalisation and, where provided, advice conflicted between documents. Many jurisdictions did not detail how S-PBT would be operationalised and failed to delineate stakeholder responsibilities. These results are important as they reveal a lack of high-level jurisdictional policy preparedness for coordinated and consistent S-PBT operationalisation. These results offer insights and opportunities for enhanced disaster preparedness as clinicians, policymakers and academics critically reflect on pandemic responses. The results show a need for enhanced preparedness around the management of overwhelming demand and clinical resource management in Australia.

What’s Trust Got to do With it? Lessons From Cross-Sectoral Research on Natural Resource Management in Australia and the U.S.

Natural resource management (NRM) is conducted within a complex context. This is particularly true at the interface of public and private interests where policy and management actions are often closely scrutinized by stakeholders. In these settings, natural resource managers often seek to achieve multiple objectives including ecosystem restoration, biodiversity conservation, commodity production, and the provision of recreation opportunities. While some objectives may be complementary, in many cases they involve tradeoffs that are contested by stakeholders. Substantial prior work has identified concepts related to trust as critical to the success of natural resource management particularly in cases of high complexity and uncertainty with high stakes for those involved. However, although regularly identified as a central variable of influence, trust appears to be conceptualized differently or entangled with related constructs across this prior research. Moreover, much of the research in NRM considers trust as an independent variable and considers the influence of trust on other variables of interest (e.g., acceptance of a particular management practices, willingness to adopt a best management practice). In this paper, we develop a conceptualization of trust drawing on different literature areas and consider how trust is related to constructs such as trustworthiness and confidence. We then consider trust in the context of natural resource management drawing on examples from the U.S. and Australia. We then consider implications of these findings for building trust in natural resource management.

A continental scale evaluation of rainwater harvesting in Australia

In this study, we have examined the viability of rainwater harvesting system in whole Australia in terms of water savings, reliability and financial viability. Three different cases of water use have been considered: (i) toilet flushing and laundry; (ii) irrigation; and (iii) combination of toilet flushing, laundry and irrigation (combined). The analysis is performed using data from 601 Australian rainfall stations. The results show that the reliability of a rainwater harvesting system is considerably high (80–100%) for ‘toilet flushing and laundry’ use. For ‘combined’ use, the reliability drops below 50% for most of the continent. We have presented the detail results of spatial distribution of reliability and water savings for a tank size of 7.5 kL. It is found that the benefit cost ratio for rainwater harvesting system over one can be achieved under certain conditions. The findings of this study will be useful in sustainable water resource management in Australia using rainwater harvesting system.

An Analysis on Human Resource Management in Australia Small and Medium Enterprises

While it is widely known that human resource management (HRM) is vital to competitive success, discussion has rarely included small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) let alone SMEs in Australia. This neglect is surprising given that SMES play an important role in the development of every economy especially in Australia's economy. With the globalization of the world economy, knowledge, and information technology expanding, the survival and development of small and medium enterprises are facing more competition pressure. This has made the investment in human resources a necessity in such a way that helps small and medium enterprises be able to resist the challenges they face in the hostile environment they operate in. If managed effectively and efficiently, human resources management can play a critical role in achieving the objectives and goals of any and all enterprises. This paper analyzes the many different issues faced by human resource management in Australia's small and medium enterprises such as recruitment, performances, succession planning, Time Management, Skill Management, Training and at the same time provides countermeasures which would contribute to the lasting succession and progress of small and medium enterprises.

Indigenous Water Governance in Australia: Comparisons with the United States and Canada

Aboriginal participation in water resources decision making in Australia is similar when compared with Indigenous peoples’ experiences in other common law countries such as the United States and Canada; however, this process has taken different paths. This paper provides a review of the literature detailing current legislative policies and practices and offers case studies to highlight and contrast Indigenous peoples’ involvement in water resources planning and management in Australia and North America. Progress towards Aboriginal governance in water resources management in Australia has been slow and patchy. The U.S. and Canada have not developed consistent approaches in honoring water resources agreements or resolving Indigenous water rights issues either. Improving co-management opportunities may advance approaches to improve interjurisdictional watershed management and honor Indigenous participation. Lessons learned from this review and from case studies presented provide useful guidance for environmental managers aiming to develop collaborative approaches and co-management opportunities with Indigenous people for effective water resources management.

The twenty year anniversary of Australia’s Oceans Policy: achievements, challenges and lessons for the future

ABSTRACTIn 1998 the Australian government released Australia’s Oceans Policy. The oceans policy was a policy experiment that attempted new and untried methods of policy implementation through ecosystem based management approaches. However, the government’s initial goal to achieve ‘full’ integration across sectors and jurisdictions was never achieved. This paper examines the achievements, challenges and lessons learned from this complex and historically significant policy process that spanned over a decade. It reveals that despite the attempt at a holistic policy approach, the challenges to reconcile the jurisdictional and sectoral issues that are entrenched in Australian oceans governance contributed to the policy’s demise. These issues continue to shape ocean and marine resources management in Australia and given the timely event of the twenty-year anniversary of the launch of the policy the question is asked – what is the way for forward for Australian oceans governance?

The divergence of traditional Aboriginal and contemporary fire management practices on Wik traditional lands, Cape York Peninsula, Northern Australia

SummaryFire has been a critical component of Aboriginal culture and natural resource management in Australia for millennia. Aboriginal fire management in Northern Australia is widespread and, in some more remote areas, has continued relatively undisrupted despite widespread changes in tenure and land use. For the Wik people of Western Cape York, there has been a continued connection to their culture and traditional lands. Recently, Wik traditional owners have formed a ranger program which has secured funding to manage contemporary land management issues. This includes the landscape‐scale management of fire for biodiversity conservation and greenhouse gas abatement. Because the work is being conducted by Aboriginal people, with consent from traditional owners and on their traditional lands, there is an assumption that the activities are compatible with historical traditional land management and cultural practices. In this study, we use participatory action research to compare contemporary fire management with the current understanding of traditional Aboriginal fire management to assess objectively the compatibility of these two paradigms. We do this by combining the experience and understanding of traditional owners with anthropological and ecological perspectives. We find that contemporary fire management is applied across traditional cultural boundaries using methods such as aerial incendiaries. Financial incentives and contractual obligations associated with fire management are externally driven or include modern considerations such as the protection of infrastructure. In contrast, traditional fire management was the prerogative of traditional owners and was applied at fine scales for specific outcomes. Fire management was governed by rules that determined how people moved across the landscape and how resources were partitioned and shared. Supporting the implementation of Aboriginal burning alongside current fire management practices could lead to significant community engagement in such activities and is likely to have much better biodiversity and social outcomes.

Stakeholder perspectives for coastal ecosystem services and influences on value integration in policy

Environmental and natural resource management in Australia occurs at a regional scale with many initiatives underpinned by an ecosystem services framework that aims to integrate economic, social and ecological values in decision-making. This research examines potential influences on value integration by identifying stakeholder perspectives for coastal ecosystem services using mangroves in south-east Queensland as a case study. The study site is one of Australia's fastest growing regions and exhibits a “hotbed of issues” with institutional complexity in coastal areas where urban development is concentrated. Q-methodology was used to systematically study stakeholder perspectives on coastal ecosystem services and identify natural groupings between stakeholders with shared values. A total of 43 respondents representing nine stakeholder categories were interviewed. Factor analysis identified four perspectives that were labelled: (1) Green Infrastructure; (2) Recreational Opportunity and Well-being; (3) Sustaining Regional Industries and Communities; and (4) Coastal Living. The concept of ecosystem ‘bundles’ was conducive to analysing the range of services valued by different perspectives and highlighted stakeholder priorities that underpin demand for coastal ecosystem services. Stakeholder perspectives show potential to influence coastal policy according to the ecosystem service categories that are prioritised in decision-making and the saliency of the services to the stakeholder group. This research contributes to the field of coastal management where a lack of progress on “well-documented problems” partly stems from governance failure to capture and consider pluralistic values in decision-making and exacerbates conflict between contested views.

Monitoring to Learn, Learning to Monitor: A Critical Analysis of Opportunities for Indigenous Community‐Based Monitoring of Environmental Change in Australian Rangelands

AbstractIndigenous community‐based monitoring has been a central feature in many international attempts to improve monitoring of and local adaptation to environmental change. Despite offering much promise, Indigenous community‐based monitoring has been underutilised in natural resource management in Australia, particularly within the remote, semi‐arid rangelands. This paper discusses contextual social and environmental factors that may help to explain this apparent deficiency, before critically analysing key stakeholder perceptions of the roles for, and challenges of monitoring in the Alinytjara Wilurara Natural Resources Management region in the north‐west of South Australia. The analysis guides a discussion of responses to better integrate monitoring in general, and Indigenous community‐based monitoring in particular, into regional environmental management approaches. We argue that community‐based monitoring offers a range of benefits, including: better coordination between stakeholders; a heightened ability to detect and respond to climatic trends and impacts; the effective utilisation of Indigenous knowledge; employment opportunities for managing and monitoring natural resources; and improved learning and understanding of rangeland socio‐ecological systems. Identified opportunities for spatial and temporal community monitoring designed for the Alinytjara Wilurara region could be of value to other remote rangeland and Indigenous institutions charged with the difficult task of monitoring, learning from, and responding to environmental change.

Consensus Building or Constructive Conflict? Aboriginal Discursive Strategies to Enhance Participation in Natural Resource Management in Australia and Canada

This article analyzes the strategies used by the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation from the Wet Tropics, Australia, and the Innu Nation of Labrador, Canada, in their efforts to participate in natural resource management within their traditional lands. Comparative research highlights that both Aboriginal groups engage in strategies of consensus building and constructive conflict, matching their choice to the dynamic institutional settings that govern natural resource management in their respective territories. Both groups build consensus for more equitable participation in natural resource management institutions while engaging, when necessary, in forms of constructive conflict that will bring about more expedient institutional change needed to fully reflect the full suite of Aboriginal interests and values. The result is a mix of Aboriginal strategies that are used to instigate planning reforms on their traditional estates.

Measured hillslope erosion rates in the wet-dry tropics of Cape York, northern Australia Part 1: A low cost sediment trap for measuring hillslope erosion in remote areas — Trap design and evaluation

Sediment budget modeling has become a widely used management tool for setting priorities for natural resource management in Australia and globally. Two of the most widely used models in Australia, SedNet, and its more recent successor Source Catchments, rely on the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) to predict sediment production from hillslope erosion. In Australia, however, very little empirical data exists with which to test the hillslope sediment yields predicted by the RUSLE, particularly in the more remote savannah woodlands of northern Australia that are used by the cattle grazing industry. These savannah woodland landscapes comprise the vast majority of the catchment area draining into key ecological assets such as the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. In this paper we present the design and evaluation of a simple, low cost hillslope sediment trap (HST) that requires little to no maintenance across an entire wet season. It can consequently be deployed in remote, inaccessible areas to collect sediment generated through hillslope erosion processes as a means of testing predictions of erosion. Using these traps, it is possible to develop locally calibrated hillslope erosion models that will provide far more realistic predictions of erosion than have previously been employed. Laboratory flume evaluations of the HSTs also show that the traps will accurately sample the full particle size distribution of sediment mobilized on a given hillslope, with a suspended sediment (<63μm) trapping efficiency conservatively estimated to be 50%.

The quality of resource condition targets in regional natural resource management in Australia

Natural resource management organisations in Australia routinely establish resource condition targets in their regional plans and catchment strategies. We reviewed biodiversity, water and community resource condition targets set by Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) in Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) over planning cycles since 1997 against criteria of being specific, measurable and time-bound (SMT). The overall quality of targets is poor, with less than 30 per cent of targets meeting the three criteria. Disturbingly, there are no SMT targets in the most recent NSW CMA catchment strategies. We identify three major reasons for poor target setting: a lack of appropriate standards and guidelines from governments to enable high quality target setting; a lack of realism about the budgetary and technical feasibility of ambitious environmental targets amongst those involved in natural resource management; and a lack of adequate focus on outcomes by both CMAs and governments. Improvements to target setting can be achieved through stronger signals and commitment by governments, including by rewarding performance of regional bodies practising outcome-focused accountability.

Social science and socialising: adopting causal layered analysis to reveal multi-stakeholder perceptions of natural resource management in Australia

The social context of Natural Resource Management (NRM) in Australia is now considered to be a major contributing factor behind the success or failure of landscape improvement programmes. This paper investigates NRM social issues via an alternative interpretative method, Causal Layered Analysis (CLA). CLA was utilised in nine focus groups, comprising landholders and staff from NRM regional bodies in central west New South Wales. A multitude of stakeholder concerns emerged, particularly regarding the concept of sustainability and confusion over roles and responsibilities. We propose that continued use of CLA by those in the local catchment community can help overcome complexity in the social landscape and lead to more engaged and empowered communities.

Reflections on the Effectiveness of Market-Based Instruments to Secure Long-Term Environmental Gains in Southeast Australia: Understanding Landholders’ Experiences

Payments to rural landholders for provision of environmental services are accepted as part of the policy “toolbox” for improving natural resource management in Australia. However, there remains uncertainty about how best to deliver payments for environmental services, including whether the recently implemented market-based instruments (MBI) deliver better outcomes than traditional approaches. Our findings reveal a considerable difference in opinion about the effectiveness of MBIs for engaging rural landholders in environmental programs. We found that programs tend to focus on “purchasing” short-term changes in behavior without sufficient regard as to whether landholders would continue with recommended environmental practices in the long-term, especially when programs cease. We conclude that with increased understanding of the social dimension of voluntary programs, some key issues can be addressed so that programs engender a long-term commitment by landholders to improved environmental management.

The state, work and family in Australia

The role of the state in work and family policies continues to attract attention. This article analyses Australia's changing workplace relations regime, specifically policies relating to flexibility rights and maternity and parental leave, to illustrate the course of the state's exit and entry in matters of employment relations and human resource management. These policies are not only selected for their topicality, but also because they are closely related to the way in which the state, through legislation and setting the social contract, impacts on the supply and flexibility of human resources. The argument is that the state's influence is clearly felt in human resource management, either by the abstention of the government from certain policy areas or by its presence in those areas. Although the current Labor government has introduced new policies to address the tensions faced by 'working families', the government will continue to face pressure to develop these polices further, as social expectations and changing demographics continue to place pressure on the supply of labour and human resource management in Australia.

Contested Country. Local and Regional Natural Resources Management in Australia

Contested Country. Local and Regional Natural Resources Management in Australia

Beyond threat- and asset-based approaches to natural resource management in Australia

Natural resource management (NRM) in Australia began as a series of campaigns against specific threats to agricultural and pastoral production, with war progressively declared on soil erosion, introduced pests and dryland salinity. Critiques of NRM programs in the 1990s coincided with a shift towards an asset-based approach. This approach emphasises the need for public investment to be focused on those parts of the landscape of high value, rather than defending large areas against broad-scale threats. The asset-based approach is more strategic, but runs the risk of sacrificing effectiveness for efficiency by overlooking the large-scale biophysical and social processes that underpin the viability of discrete assets. Further, the asset-based approach fails to sufficiently acknowledge the importance of engaging and building the human, social and cultural capital required to underpin longterm environmental management. A condition-based approach to NRM is proposed that builds on the best of the threat-based and asset-based approaches by setting targets based on environmental processes rather than perceptions of ideal states; borrowing systematic approaches to assessing value and condition from conservation planning; and investing in the social, economic, human and cultural capital required to support lasting change.

Government support for Indigenous cultural and natural resource management in Australia: The role of the Working on Country program

In Australia national concerns about climate change, biodiversity loss, water quantity and quality and land degradation have high priority on the government's environment agenda. With this comes the opportunity to strategically integrate Indigenous land and sea management into plans for tackling these challenges, not least because the Indigenous estate—which includes some of the most biodiverse lands in Australia—continues to increase as a result of successful land and native title claims and the declaration of more Indigenous Protected Areas. This paper explores government support for Indigenous land and sea management focusing on the Commonwealth government's Working on Country program. The paper outlines the development of formalised Indigenous cultural and natural resource management, and the emergence of the Working on Country program is discussed in the past and current policy context. The opportunities and challenges for the future of the program, and formalised Indigenous land and sea management in Australia more broadly, are outlined. To finish, a note of cautious optimism: while an expanded Working on Country program underpinned by community‐led priorities and aspirations has the potential to simultaneously ameliorate Indigenous poverty and ensure natural resource management occurs, this will require targeted investment and a more holistic and less sectoral approach from government.