Catherine Allan

Understanding the Role of Assigned Values in Natural Resource Management

Understanding community values can improve communication and ownership of decisions about the management of natural resources. However, the extent that values predict environmental behaviour is less certain. Most research has focused on held values, those values towards the environment in general. In contrast, assigned values relate to specific natural places, and we hypothesise that they may be a better predictor of behaviour. Drawing on existing theory and our case study findings, we developed a conceptual model of factors that influence assigned values and of the role of assigned values in shaping environmental behaviour. This model builds on the widely accepted value-belief-norm theory with additional components addressing asset characteristics, socialisation processes and externally-imposed factors. An understanding of community-assigned values is likely to assist decision-making by regional natural resource management bodies as they move towards a more targeted approach to the investment of public funds and a focus on the most highly valued environmental assets.

Adaptive Environmental Management

Acknowledgements.- Author biographies.- Section I: Understanding adaptive management. 1. Introduction G. Stankey, C. Allan.- 2. Components of Adaptive Management R.M. Argent.- Section II: Varying contexts. 3. Lessons learned from adaptive management practitioners in British Columbia, Canada A. Smith.- 4. Using adaptive management to meet multiple goals for flows along the Mitta Mitta River in south-eastern Australia C. Allan et al.- 5. Adaptive management of a sustainable wildlife enterprise trial in Australias Barrier Ranges P. Ampt et al.- 6. Learning about the social elements of adaptive management in the South Island tussock grasslands of New Zealand W. Allen, C. Jacobson.- 7. Kuka Kanyini, Australian Indigenous adaptive management G. Wilson, M. Woodrow.- 8. Crisis as a positive role in implementing adaptive management after the Biscuit fire, Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. B.T. Bormann, G.H. Stankey.- Section III: Tools for adaptive management. 9. Modelling and adaptive environmental management T. Jakeman et al.- 10. Lessons learned from a computer-assisted participatory planning and management process in the Peak District National Park, England K. Hubacek, M. Reed.- 11. Signposts for Australian Agriculture J. Chesson et al.- 12. Environmental Management Systems as adaptive natural resource management: case studies from agriculture G. Wilson et al.- 13. The adaptive management system for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area - linking management planning with effectiveness evaluation G. Jones.- Section IV: The importance ofpeople. 14. Adaptive management of environmental flows - 10 years on T. Ladson.- 15. Collaborative learning as part of adaptive management of forests affected by deer C. Jacobson et al.- 16. Effective leadership for adaptive management L. Schultz, I.. Fazey.- 17. Institutionalising adaptive management: creating a culture of learning in New South Wales Parks and wildlife service P. Stathis, C. Jacobson.- 18. Adaptive people for adaptive management I. Fazey, L. Schultz.- Section V: Conclusion. 19. Synthesis of lessons C. Allan, G. Stankey.-

A new paradigm for water? A comparative review of integrated, adaptive and ecosystem-based water management in the Anthropocene

The failure of conventional approaches to achieve equitable and sustainable water management has prompted a new way of perceiving and acting with water. This is creating a ‘new water paradigm’ that emphasizes broader stakeholder involvement; integration of sectors, issues and disciplines; attention to the human dimensions of management; and wider recognition of the economic, ecological and cultural values of water. This article reviews three approaches arising within the new water paradigm: integrated water resources management; ecosystem-based approaches; and adaptive management. The article concludes that the strengths of each approach address different moral and ecological challenges. Combining these strengths, while minimizing tensions, may contribute to more effective water management in the Anthropocene.

Social Norms and Natural Resource Management in a Changing Rural Community

There has been considerable academic interest in the adoption of sustainable resource management practices from a behavioural perspective, particularly in relation to the activities of community-based natural resource management (NRM) groups such as Landcare. Community groups are said to be generating new forms of social capital via their networks of relationships between individuals and groups. These connections facilitate social learning and build community capacity to address environmental problems but perhaps because of the focus on networks, the norms component of social capital has been given little attention in the NRM literature. This paper addresses that gap by synthesizing relevant social norms theory with the findings from a study examining landholder management of native vegetation in an Australian rural community undergoing substantial social change. Findings from interviews with landholders and government agency personnel indicated that existing social norms were influencing newer landholders and that new norms of land management behaviour had emerged. We suggest that there is potential to enhance the outcomes of NRM investment using interventions which capitalize on the power of social norms.

Soil indicators and their use by farmers in the Billabong Catchment, southern New South Wales

‘Soil health’ programs and projects in Australia’s agricultural districts are designed to influence farmers’ management behaviours, usually to produce better outcomes for production, conservation, and sustainability. These programs usually examine soil management practices from a soil science perspective, but how soils are understood by farmers, and how that understanding informs their farm management decisions, is poorly documented. The research presented in this paper sought to better understand how dryland farmers in the Billabong catchment of southern New South Wales use soil indicators to inform their management decisions. Thematic content analysis of transcripts of semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with farmers suggest several themes that have implications for soil scientists and other professionals wishing to promote soil health in the dryland farming regions of south-eastern Australia. In particular, all soil indicators, including those related to soil ‘health’, need to relate to some clear, practical use to farmers if they are to be used in farm decision making. This research highlights a reliance of the participants of this research on agronomists. Reliance on agronomists for soil management decisions may result in increasing loss of connectivity between farmers and their land. If this reflects a wider trend, soil health projects may need to consider where best to direct their capacity-building activities, and/or how to re-empower individual farmers.

Using river-scale experiments to inform variable releases from large dams: a case study of emergent adaptive management

Case studies of successful adaptive management generally focus on examples that have frameworks for adaptive management embedded from project conception. In contrast, this paper outlines an example of emergent adaptive management. We describe an approach whereby targeted research and collaboration among stakeholders assisted learning, and ultimately the development of interim operational guidelines for increased within-channel flow variability in the highly regulated Mitta Mitta River, which is managed as part of the River Murray System in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia. Environmental monitoring of four variable flow trials evaluated the response of water column microbial activity, benthic and water column metabolism, the structure and composition of algal biofilms, and benthic macroinvertebrates to increased flow variability created by varying the release from Dartmouth Reservoir. Each trial built upon lessons from previous trials, with collaboration among key stakeholders occurring before, during and after each trial. Institutional conditions encouraged a shift to adaptive management over time that helped to achieve environmental, social and economic objectives downstream of the dam. A key lesson is that adaptive management does not have to be specified a priori, but can emerge within a trusting relationship between stakeholders as long as they are willing and able to change their operational paradigm.

Towards a Duty of Care for Biodiversity

The decline in biodiversity is a worldwide phenomenon, with current rates of species extinction more dramatic than any previously recorded. Habitat loss has been identified as the major cause of biodiversity decline. In this article we suggest that a statutory duty of care would complement the current mix of policy options for biodiversity conservation. Obstacles hindering the introduction of a statutory duty of care include linguistic ambiguity about the terms ‘duty of care’ and ‘stewardship’ and how they are applied in a natural resource management context, and the absence of a mechanism to guide its implementation. Drawing on international literature and key informant interviews we have articulated characteristics of duty of care to reduce linguistic ambiguity, and developed a framework for implementing a duty of care for biodiversity at the regional scale. The framework draws on key elements of the common law ‘duty of care’, the concepts of ‘taking reasonable care’ and ‘avoiding foreseeable harm’, in its logic. Core elements of the framework include desired outcomes for biodiversity, supported by current recommended practices. The focus on outcomes provides opportunities for the development of innovative management practices. The framework incorporates multiple pathways for the redress of non-compliance including tiered negative sanctions, and positive measures to encourage compliance. Importantly, the framework addresses the need for change and adaptation that is a necessary part of biodiversity management.

Can adaptive management help us embrace the Murray-Darling Basin’s wicked problems?

In this chapter I explore the potential value of adaptive management of wicked problems, using Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin as a focus. The Murray-Darling Basin is one of the largest and most economically important catchments in Australia. Being large and eco-socially-politically very complex, resource managers face many ‘wicked’ problems-including dryland salinity, biodiversity decline, waterway eutrophication and competition for use of surface and groundwaters, all against the backdrop of climate change and increasing understandings of systems. Narrowly focused ‘rational’ approaches are proving insufficient to address these issues, so government policy discourse has turned, in part, to adaptive management. Adaptive management enables managers to learn about whole systems as they are managed, and so is expected to cope with complexity and uncertainty. As an observer of adaptive management of natural resource management in the Murray-Darling Basin I question whether adaptive management as it is currently practiced is reflecting the ideal. I suggest that current adaptive management projects are concerned with ‘taming’ problems to enable them to be addressed with conventional management. Ironically, this appears to be in response to complexity and uncertainty, a function of the risk averse cultures in which management operates. To use the full potential of adaptive management to address eco-socially-politically complex natural resource management issues requires an acceptance that risk and uncertainty are inevitable. The first step to achieving this could be to support leaders who can construct cultures conducive to more courageous adaptive management.

Rethinking the ‘Project’: Bridging the Polarized Discourses in IWRM

Integrated water resource management (IWRM) is a response to current acknowledgement of the complexity and wickedness of water management. IWRM aims to enable appropriate responses via multi-party participation. Adaptive management—purposeful learning for improved action—is a useful tool for integrating water resource management. It provides a framework to enable participatory processes and social learning to contribute to changed policies and practices. However, the institutional constraints on moving to adaptive management (and hence IWRM) are many and deeply entrenched. The paper explores these constraints by considering the almost unconscious, and generally uncritical, reliance on ‘projects’ in natural resource management. Using examples from Australia, it reflects on the defining features of natural resource management ‘projects’ and critically considers these in relation to the conditions needed for adaptive management, social learning and IWRM. Projects, bounded in time and space and strongly tied to political and financial cycles, encourage short-term planning and action, not to mention risk avoidance and solidification of power differentials. Active reflection on the nature of projects provides a useful space to explore a possible clash between the normative idealistic and the critical realist perspectives of integrating water management.

Exploring Natural Resource Management with Metaphor Analysis

In the following pages I reflect on the nature of natural resource management by exploring some of the metaphors used during planning, implementing, and reflecting on two watershed management projects. Metaphors are used to understand one idea through another, and their use in everyday dialogue can provide a means to understand the conceptual frameworks that underpin behaviours. Within the case studies presented here, natural resource management was conceptualized variously as journeying, revealing a picture, and treating watershed illness. Understanding the world through each of these conceptual frameworks appears to have influenced the planning, delivery, and evaluation of natural resource management activities undertaken in the case-study areas. The qualitative, interpretive study of conceptual frameworks presented here helps to explain participant behaviours, and could be used to predict the acceptance or otherwise of particular program approaches within these and similar projects.