Strategic Research Area
Social Research for Regional Natural Resource Management
Led by Prof Allan Curtis
Issue
Pressures arising from population growth, rising living standards and consumption of resources, climatic variability and gobalisation are becoming important drivers of regional change and development.
How rural and regional communities respond to these challenges will depend on how engaged they are with the issues, their preparedness and ability to respond, in Australia and beyond.
In Australia Natural Resource Management (NRM) is increasingly structured around a regional delivery model where planning and implementation is guided by national and state priorities but mostly occurs at the regional scale.
The Australian landscape has been modified by people over millennia. Its land and water degradation is a result of the interactions between people and the natural environment. For NRM plans to be successful they need to be based on an understanding of the social context and must consider the social impacts of proposed actions. While there appears to be an increased appreciation of the potential contribution of the social sciences to NRM in Australia, there is little evidence that existing regional NRM plans are underpinned by social research.
Accordingly there are opportunities for social research to play an important role at various steps in regional NRM (such as helping articulate a vision and objective; and identifying targets for the implementation of management actions).
The ILWS team engaged in research examining the social dimensions of NRM has critical mass with 9 senior staff, 3 post docs and 13 PhD students; and a strong track record, with substantial contributions to knowledge, management and policy, research methods and training.
This SRA has been at the forefront of efforts in Australia to identify ways social research can contribute to integrated research teams. Much of that experience has been gained through contributions to large, multi-disciplinary projects, including Landscape Logic, led by Professor Ted Lefroy at the University of Tasmania. Landscape Logic is one of the research hubs in the Commonwealth Environmental Research Facilities Program.
While pursuing important social research questions, their work is also contributing to integrated research that is attempting to predict the environmental, economic and social impacts of changes in water availability as a result of new policies, climate change or the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater.
Regional NRM in Australia shares many similarities in terms of the issues, challenges and opportunities with many other countries including its closest neighbours in the Asia Pacific Region. Responses to some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges (climate change, illegal deforestation) require international cooperation and action. The Australian experience with Landcare and regional NRM governance can also inform development in the Asia Pacific region.
Aim
The aim of this SRA is to improve regional Natural Resource Management decision making.
“By focussing on the regional scale, you can influence management more readily than you can at a national scale. The regional scale is an exciting context for social research because it is at the interface between communities of place and practice and large policy frameworks driven by government and influence of stakeholders. The lessons we have learned in Australia are transferable overseas, particularly in those countries that work within a rural development framework” - Prof Allan Curtis