Tabatha Wallington

Boundary work: engaging knowledge systems in co-management of feral animals on Indigenous lands

The integration and use of Indigenous knowledge to inform contemporary environmental policy decisions and management solutions is a growing global phenomenon. However, there is little critical inquiry about how the interactions between scientific and Indigenous knowledge (IK) systems can be effectively negotiated for the joint management of social- ecological systems. Such issues are urgent on Indigenous lands where co-management efforts respond to pressing conservation agendas and where the contribution of scientific knowledge and IK is required to better understand and manage complex social- ecological systems. We draw on the notion of boundary work to examine how interaction at the boundaries of scientific and IK systems can be managed effectively as a contribution to co-management. The case study of feral animal co-management in Australias Kakadu National Park illuminates the work required for local co-managers to bridge the divide between scientific and IK systems and to ensure the translation of knowledge for management decisions. Attributes of effective boundary work demonstrated in this case include: meaningful participation in agenda setting and joint knowledge production to enable co- managers to translate available knowledge into joint feral animal programs, Indigenous and non-Indigenous ranger efforts to broker interactions between knowledge systems that are supported by co-governance arrangements to ensure that boundary work remains accountable, and the production of collaboratively built boundary objects (e.g., feral animal impact assessment data) that helps to coordinate local action between co-managers. This case study illustrates the contribution of boundary work to local co-manager efforts to translate across knowledge systems and across the knowledge-action divide, even when consensus is difficult to achieve.

Working knowledge for collaborative water planning in Australia’s Wet Tropics region

Cooperation between multiple environmental decision-makers and activities is necessary to address the impacts of diffuse sources of agricultural pollution on the water quality entering Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Water planning efforts requires available knowledge to inform this co-operative water program implementation and reform. This paper uses knowledge sharing, translation and feedback features of collaboration as a way to assess knowledge work practices during key phases of the water planning process. This enabled a systematic review of knowledge work practices in partnership with collaborative water planning groups established to inform water quality program investment decisions in the GBR’s Wet Tropics region. This research builds on the growing academic and policy interest in the conditions required to enable different types of knowledge to be successfully used for policy-making by focusing on when, how and why knowledge work to meet these conditions is required.

The Determinants of Company Response to Environmental Regulation

The impact of governmental regulatory action on the economic performance of mining companies has been the focus of a great deal of attention by industry commentators and academic scholarship alike. The influence of environmental regulation on the strategic objectives of mining firms is less well understood, however. This article investigates what influences the way mining companies react to environmental approvals regulation. It presents the results of a recent cross‐national survey of Australian and Canadian mining companies into the effect of a range of possible determinants on company response to environmental approvals regulation. Possible influences included both external pressures (stakeholder pressure, jurisdictional culture and market characteristics) and internal pressures (organizational culture, organizational learning, the influence of individuals within firms and company size). While cross‐national comparison revealed some differences with respect to the influence of particular pressures, on balance the results suggest that for mining companies in both countries, internal pressures exert the greatest influence on company response. These results contradict a prevailing view in the literature, which suggests that external factors, particularly stakeholder groups, exert the most influence on the environmental responses of firms. The article concludes that the existing emphasis on external pressures to explain corporate environmental behaviour should be supplemented by a focus on the internal dynamics of firms.