Ruth Lane

The Boundaries of Nature Tourism

This paper illustrates the malleable boundaries that define nature. Personal con- struct theory is employed to examine the apparent contradiction of the human/nature binary posed by landscapes generated by domesticated agriculture and physical and biological pro- cesses. Specifically, the paper reports on how tourists to the Kimberley region of Australia discriminate between their perception of human artifacts as attractions (including Lake Argyle, the Argyle Dam, and irrigated agriculture) and the regions gorges, rivers, billabongs, flora and fauna. Repertory grid analysis suggests that the Argyle Dam is perceived in a similar fashion to physical, geological, and biological attractions. However, the irrigated agriculture is perceived quite differently, as domesticated. Policy implications for the regions nature based tourism are explored. Keywords: personal construct theory, nature tourism, The Kim- berley.  2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Routes of Reuse of Second-hand Goods in Melbourne Households

Abstract While various Australian state governments have set targets for the reduction of waste to landfill, the emphasis to date has been placed mainly on the development of bulk materials recycling industries than on other strategies for waste reduction such as the reuse of second-hand goods. Many second-hand channels are informal and do not involve market transactions, making it difficult to collect information that could identify patterns. In this paper we report on the findings of a survey conducted with 306 Melbourne households about their practices of acquiring and disposing of used household goods. Our survey results confirm the importance of both formal and informal channels for the circulation of second-hand goods among Melbourne households. Socio-demographic characteristics such as household composition, employment status, education level and country of birth, along with infrastructure issues, such as dwelling types and residential tenures, are significant predictors of the use of various second-hand channels. A fuller understanding of the routes of reuse of second-hand goods will require grappling with complex intergenerational and gender effects, and large differences between types of dwellings, systems of infrastructure and living situations among Melbourne householders.

Committing to place at the local scale: the potential of youth education programs for promoting community participation in regional natural resource management

Abstract Emerging approaches to environmental governance require a greater level of community participation than did previous approaches in which these responsibilities largely rested with government agencies. There is consequently a need for increased engagement with NRM among a broad community sector. This paper examines initiatives by two prominent government agencies, the Murray–Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) and the National Museum of Australia (NMA), to engage school children from regional communities using education programs that focus on place and environmental health. We focus on the MDBCs International Riverhealth Conference held in Mildura in 2003 and the associated Murray–Darling Basin TalkBack Classroom sponsored by the NMA and the Parliamentary Education Office (PEO). We explore how key themes of local scale, place-based identities, youth voice and critical engagement are developed in these programs and consider how they relate to the environmental agency of children. We then reflect on the potential for the kinds of environmental agency promoted through these programs to help build the capacity of local communities to progress larger goals of environmental restoration and sustainability in the Murray–Darling Basin. The evaluation research reported here forms part of the Committing to Place research project, an Australian Research Council Linkage grant involving the University of Tasmania, the National Museum of Australia and the Murray–Darling Basin Commission.

Careers in the environment in Australia: surveying environmental jobs

Internationally, commentators have identified a growing demand for environmental expertise. Matching this has been an expansion in the range of environmental careers available to workers: from environment protection and bio‐physical areas, to local government operations, environmental auditing, assessment, and management. However, in Australia there is no overall picture of the types of jobs graduates in this sector have undertaken, which has limited the advice that can be given about environmental careers. To redress this situation a survey was conducted with 600 respondents working in the environment professions in Australia. The results identified a wide range of professional areas; these are grouped into 12 subcategories for three main environmental employment sectors: Environmental protection (19% of respondents), Conservation and preservation of natural resources (26%), Environmental Sustainability (55%). Respondents mainly had a bachelor‐level degree; however, a substantial proportion had an honours degree or postgraduate qualification. Respondents strongly recommended undertaking work experience to acquire key general skills that they identified as important for working in the environment sector. A related suggestion was for tertiary environmental courses to have a practical focus that produces ‘work‐ready’ students. Comparison with the situations in the UK, Canada and the USA and are also offered regarding the results and trends, and suggestions for further research.

Learning Conservation: the role of conservation covenants in landscape redesign at Project Hindmarsh, Victoria

Abstract Biodiversity decline continues apace across the Australian landscape with a pressing need to redesign land use to address this situation. The significance of private land increasingly is recognised for the protection and enhancement of biodiversity as landholders inevitably make decisions that affect environmental quality. Biodiversity conservation is as much a social process as a physical one. Conservation covenants are perpetual agreements under which landholders choose to conserve land voluntarily, primarily for conservation purposes. The role covenants might play in landscape-scale conservation was investigated in north-western Victoria. In-depth interviews with a range of participants were undertaken, with an emphasis on the role covenantors might play as social learning and cultural change agents. Analysis of these interviews offers useful perspectives for understanding socio-cultural dimensions of landscape change and exploring the differing values of production farmers and nature conservation landholders. Consideration is then given to approaches to engaging local production farmers in nature covenants and promoting communication between this group and the largely non-production conservationists who currently form the mainstay of conservation covenants.

Irrigated agriculture and place‐making in the East Kimberley

This paper explores the way in which lived experiences of farmers in the Ord Valley have intersected with representations of the Ord Valley over time. I contrast the development of Stage 1 of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme in the 1960s with a proposal put forward in the late 1990s for greatly expanding the area of irrigated agriculture as Stage 2 of the scheme. I examine the rhetoric employed in planning documents and public media coverage of the first and proposed second stages of the Ord Irrigation Scheme and explore its connections with social identifications of farmers in the Ord Valley since the 1960s. I then argue the value of this approach for understanding the dynamic relationship between the spatial practices and social identifications of farmers and representations of place and land use in public media and planning processes.

Chapter 8 What Role for the Social Enterprises in the Circular Economy

Abstract In debates about recycling and the circular economy, the role of existing organisations that already facilitate the circulation of materials through society can be neglected. Indeed, the social enterprise sector may currently be more significant than the commercial waste management sector in facilitating the circular economy within Australia. Drawing on interviews with organisations involved in collecting and reprocessing used electronics and scrap metal in Australia, the authors detail some of the synergies and tensions between the social enterprises and commercial organisations that have emerged as recycling gains traction through government policy and various forms of product stewardship. The authors conclude with suggestions for policy and governance approaches most likely to facilitate productive and perhaps symbiotic relationships between the two sectors in the future.

Plant-human commoning: navigating enclosure, neoliberal conservation and plant mobility in exurban landscapes

Conservation on private land in exurban landscapes is habitually framed around the private property parcel. Neoliberal conservation programs that position private property as exclusive territory for conservation action are compounding the property-centric focus of exurban conservation practices. This framing conflicts with an understanding of ecologies as socionatures that are geographically dispersed and temporally contingent, as well as the implications of landscape-scale species migration driven by climate change. Here we explore whether the agency and mobility of plants across property boundaries offer an avenue for more meaningful alternatives to exurban conservation that are not bounded by the territory of private property. The conservation practices of exurban landholders in Victoria, Australia, were explored through qualitative interviews and property walks. The mobility of plants in the form of spreading, seeding, and suckering through fence lines reflects a form of more-than-human territorial enactment that can bring attention to shared and relational ecologies, while unsettling the notion of control over conservation practice that accompanies property ownership. We explore the potential of the recent reengagement with commoning—in the form of plant–human commoning practices—to position plants as active collaborators in commoning, rather than as the objects of human commoning. Although attentive to the challenges of multispecies coalitions in conservation, we suggest that plant–human commoning could offer new possibilities for conservation that is grounded in the affordances of plants, as a counter to neoliberal governance and the individualization and privatization of exurban landscapes.