Collaborative Natural Resource Management: Institutional Analysis of Catchment Management in Australia (1)
Collaborative approaches to natural resource management (NRM), emphasising participatory and decentralised forms of decision-making, such as catchment management, have been experimented with in Australia over the past 15 years or so. These experiments have taken place in an institutional context that has been changing frequently and rapidly, as many states have, particularly in recent years, reviewed legislative and administrative arrangements for NRM. In New South Wales (NSW), for instance, such changes have often altered the structure and process of NRM decision-making (e.g., the interests represented, the level of authority and power devolved, community participation, geographic domain, etc.). Although, these reforms have sought to improve NRM performance and outcomes, they have occurred in a context where the exact requirements for institutional change, in order to facilitate collaborative NRM, are not well understood. In this context, it is not explicit how (and if) these institutional reforms are establishing, or are likely to establish, appropriate arrangements to translate the rhetoric of collaborative NRM into practice.
This study examines the design of and change in institutional arrangements for collaborative NRM in the context of the NSW experience. The study uses a case study research approach to undertake a comparative analysis of the arrangements experimented with over the history of the NSW catchment management initiative (late 1980s-mid 00s). The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework is used to examine three case studies, representatives of periods characterised by significant institutional change. The research aims to provide a better understanding of how (and why) institutional design and change have taken place, and how such design and change have facilitated (or otherwise) collaborative NRM.
(1) This research was part of a PhD program undertaken in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Wollongong, Australia.
Publications and Conference Presentations Derived from this Project
FIDELMAN, P.I.J. 2008. Challenges to Decentralization of Watershed Management: The Case of New South Wales, Australia. In: Menon, S.V. & Pillai P.A. (eds), Watershed Management: Concepts and Experiences. ICFAI University Press, India, pp. 170-184.
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FIDELMAN, P.I.J. 2006. Collaborative Natural Resource Management in a Changing Institutional Landscape: Rhetoric and Practice of Catchment Management in New South Wales, Australia. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, PhD Thesis.
FIDELMAN, P.I.J. 2006. Watershed Management in New South Wales, Australia: A Case of Constrained Decentralization? 11th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property (IASCP), Bali, Indonesia.
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FIDELMAN, P.I.J., MORRISON, J. & WEST, R. 2005. Development of Watershed Management in New South Wales, Australia: A Coastal Perspective. Coastal Zone 05, New Orleans, USA.
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FIDELMAN, P.I.J. 2005. Watershed Management in New South Wales, Australia: Is It Moving from Governance to Government? Presentation at the Panel “Improving Ecosystem Governance: Theory and Practice”, Coastal Zone 05, New Orleans, USA.
FIDELMAN, P.I.J., MORRISON, R. J.; WEST, R. 2004. Catchment Management Planning in Coastal Areas: Some Preliminary Insights from New South Wales, Australia. Proceedings of the Coastal Zone Asia Pacific Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 221-226.
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FIDELMAN, P.I.J., MORRISON, R. J.; WEST, R. 2004. Coastal Issues in Regional Natural Resource Management Plans: The Case of the New South Wales Catchment Blueprints. Coast to Coast 04 Conference, Hobart, Australia.
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 University of Wollongong Australia |
This research was sponsored by: Government of Brazil |
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