Assessment of the Potential Changes in Wellbeing of Key Interest Groups in the Fitzroy River Catchment Under alternative Development Scenarios: scenario team's workshop 3, Broome, Western Australia, 15–16 October

This report presents the preliminary results of a workshop held on 15 and 16 October 2019 in Broome, aiming to develop a way to identify and assess the likely positive and negative effects of different future development scenarios on the wellbeing of key interest groups in the Fitzroy River catchment. Participants discussed how several categories of wellbeing are currently satisfied in the Fitzroy catchment and then assessed a set of future scenarios against those categories. Participants’ ratings followed a similar pattern, with scenarios 1A, 1B and 2 (strong policies) being rated positively by the majority of participants, and scenarios 3 and 4 (weak policies) being rated mostly negatively. The common pattern reflects a recurrent theme in participants’ comments regarding the need for good governance, strong policies, and regulation of economic activities so that residents can benefit from such new development initiatives. Conversely, in weak policy scenarios, there could be negative social and environmental impacts that would affect residents and the eventual economic benefits could be reaped by fewer locals, or by non-residents (e.g. corporations and temporary workers)

Assessment of the Potential Changes in Wellbeing of Key Interest Groups in the Fitzroy River Catchment Under Alternative Development Scenarios: Traditional Owners' workshop

This report presents the preliminary results of a workshop held on 10 and 11 September 2019 with Traditional Owner groups in Fitzroy Crossing, aiming to develop a way to identify and assess the positive and negative effects of different future scenarios on the wellbeing of Traditional Owners across the Fitzroy River catchment. Participants discussed how several categories of wellbeing are currently satisfied in the Fitzroy catchment; and then assessed scenarios 1, 2 and 4 against those categories. Participants’ ratings generally had scenario 1 with the most positive ratings and scenarios 2 and 4 with mostly negative ratings. The negative ratings seem to be linked with an aversion to large-scale irrigated agriculture and its perceived potential impacts, especially the withdrawal of water, pollution, and limited access to Country. Participants perceived positively an increase in ranger jobs and the potential for Indigenous-owned enterprises in scenarios 1 and 2. However, many emphasised that making these jobs satisfactory required training initiatives to build Traditional Owners' capacity. The next steps include a more comprehensive analysis of participants' comments, reporting back to participants and to a broader audience

A well-being framework for cross-cultural assessment of development scenarios: A case study from North-Western Australia

In Western-democratic countries, it is widely accepted that affected communities should be involved in natural resource planning and decisions. This is especially so when the well-being of diverse communities is directly involved, and where alternative future options are being considered. Although there is an agreement that ‘values’ and ‘well-being’, in some form, guide decisions, there is no consensus on the well-being framework(s) that might be used in participatory planning. To assist a multicultural group in assessing alternative future development scenarios for the Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) in Western Australia, we developed a well-being framework that culturally diverse communities could share and use to discuss and assess scenarios. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the effectiveness of the well-being framework used to assess the potential impacts of scenarios by (i) analysing how effectively participants used the well-being framework; (ii) verifying whether the well-being framework was sensitive to the cultural diversity of participants and (iii) direct evaluation by workshop participants. Our analysis shows that participants effectively applied most well-being categories, and the framework was sensitive to the cross-cultural context of the application by capturing Aboriginal cultural elements. However, the approach can be improved by including principles of behaviour; producing a more complete system model; and reviewing and amending the well-being categories in more extensive community consultation. We conclude that the interaction among different worldviews generated valuable knowledge and that, with further adaptation, the framework shows promise for applications involving similar tasks in culturally diverse contexts

Looking back to look forward: a timeline of the Fitzroy River catchment. Report to the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment

Given proposed expansion of developments in northern Australia and current tensions among different interest groups, there is a need to develop new planning approaches that support multiple uses of land and water, while maintaining environmental and cultural values. Our project aimed to demonstrate how to operationalise multi-objective catchment planning supported by scenario thinking, by which stakeholders collaboratively build and assess the outcomes of alternative development futures. The project used participatory scenario planning to guide stakeholders through a systematic and critical examination of possible development trajectories and their associated environmental and socioeconomic outcomes. A multi-stakeholder group worked through a series of workshops to explore alternative development pathways and their outcomes. On July 10-11, NESP researchers led the first project workshop, gathering 40 people from 26 organisations across all main interest groups, including the federal Department of the Environment and Energy, state agencies, local governments, mining, agriculture and tourism organisations, environmental NGOs, and Aboriginal organisations representing the views and interests of Traditional Owners. The workshop involved a series of activities for team members to get to know each other, strengthen relationships, and build trust – all critical elements of participatory scenario planning. During the workshop, we discussed the meaning of development, driving forces of land use change, and development initiatives proposed for the region. An important goal of the first workshop was to create shared understandings of what is happening in the region that could shape the future development of the catchment. Therefore, before exploring the future, we looked back into the past. We created a timeline for the Fitzroy, identifying the events and forces that have shaped how the catchment looks today and could drive land use change in the future. Such events included social movements, policy changes, resource exploration, early irrigation projects, road improvements, and the proclamation of the Native Title Act that recognizes the rights and interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in land and waters according to their traditional laws and customs, among many others. This report summarises the process underpinning the creation of a timeline of the Fitzroy River catchment. For this timeline, the group identified the things that have changed the region and shaped the way things are today. Building this timeline helped participants to understand and share ideas about driving forces of land-use change. This activity opened up thinking on how local and external events and processes have shaped and will continue to change the region. The Story Map referred to in this report (Looking back to look forward: A timeline of the Fitzroy River catchment) was created based on the timeline. The online application combines text, images, and maps to describe a series of key events that have shaped the Fitzroy catchment

Future scenarios for the Fitzroy River catchment: summary of key findings relevant to the WA Government Discussion Paper

We summarise the significant components and findings from NESP project 1.6 (Multi-objective planning in northern Australia: co-benefits and trade-offs between environmental, economic, and cultural outcomes). In particular, we discuss results relevant to the Western Australia government's draft paper 'Managing water in the Fitzroy River Catchment – Discussion paper for stakeholder consultation'. Specifically, we provide comments regarding the seven components of the draft paper: (1) adaptive management, (2) policy on dams, (3) groundwater extraction, (4) surface water harvesting, (5) opportunities for Aboriginal economic development, (6) regulatory requirements, and (7) water development options posed by the WA government for the consideration by stakeholders

When to Use Transdisciplinary Approaches for Environmental Research

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) can help generate solutions to environmental challenges and enhance the uptake of research outputs, thus contributing to advance sustainability in social-ecological systems. Our aim is to support investment decisions in TDR; more specifically, to help funders, researchers, and research users to decide when and why it is most likely to be worth investing in TDR approaches. To achieve our aim, we: 1) define TDR and use a decision tree comparing it with alternative modes of research (i.e., basic, applied, disciplinary, multi-disciplinary, and interdisciplinary research) to help researchers and funders distinguish TDR from other research modes; 2) identify features of the research problem and context (complexity, diverse knowledge systems, contestation, power imbalance, and disagreement on the need for transformative change) where a TDR approach could be more appropriate than the alternative research modes; and 3) explore the idea that the intensity of the contextual features in (2), together with the problem at hand, will help determine where a research project stands in a continuum from low- to high-TDR. We present five studies exemplifying lower- to higher-TDR approaches that are distinguished by: 1) the number and variety of research participants engaged; 2) the strength of involvement of non-academic actors; and 3) the number and variety of disciplines and knowledge systems involved in the research

The human dimensions of species prioritisation: a case study from Queensland, Australia

The current biodiversity crisis requires substantial investment to mitigate the adverse effects of humans on the natural environment. Nonetheless, there are limited resources available for environmental conservation. This lack of resources forces individuals and organisations with responsibilities for environmental protection and recovery to prioritise investments. Conservation planning provides tools and principles that can assist in the identification of priorities for environmental conservation. Recent studies have identified a significant gap between conservation planning and implementation. This gap is partially attributed to the technical focus of most conservation planning initiatives, despite the definition of priorities for environmental conservation being a social issue that involves the competing interests of stakeholders with different levels of power to influence decisions.\ud \ud Much of the investment in conservation concerns the conservation of threatened species. Species conservation is a contested matter associated with significant political debate. Nonetheless, my analysis of the literature in conservation planning shows that species prioritisation is treated mainly as a technical issue. The literature largely is dominated by accounts of theoretical prioritisation methods aimed at identifying the most important biophysical variables on which to base prioritisation and the development of algorithms to define priorities. This literature is silent on the human dimensions of these processes despite their importance to the success or failure of environmental programs. Although most of the processes outlined in the literature reviewed have been adopted, there has been virtually no evaluation of species prioritisation processes.\ud \ud This thesis aimed to clarify the influence of social and political factors on the uptake of prioritisation initiatives. I used an exploratory case study of an initiative that aimed to identify priorities for species conservation in Queensland, Australia – the Back on Track program (BoTp). The multi-faceted and innovative nature of this research required an inductive and interdisciplinary approach, which was reflected in my analytical framework, based on the interplay between data, literature and consultations with experts. Data collection included a mix of qualitative and quantitative social sciences methods.\ud \ud I used a summative evaluation to address my first research question: "when species-based prioritisation methods are adopted by organisations, do the priorities identified by these methods inform decision-making?" My results suggested that the priorities identified by the case study prioritisation tool informed the investments of potential users. The BoTp plans were the main outputs of the program, and they were used as a reference to support funding applications and to inform organisation priorities. Nevertheless, the uptake of BoTp priorities was hindered by socio-political factors.\ud \ud To answer my second research question, "what factors affect the uptake of the priorities identified via species-based prioritisation as measured by policy or financial investment?", I categorised the factors affecting the uptake of the BoTp into social-structural and agency-related aspects, reflecting the theoretical perspective from the political sciences that I adopted. I also explicitly incorporated such factors into my inductively developed analytical framework.\ud \ud When governments adopt prioritisation methods, they have the option of using a combination of policy instruments to foster the uptake of resulting priorities by intended users. These instruments include: financial incentives, legislation, and knowledge transfer. I identified social-structural factors that affected: (1) the choice of policy instrument to support the BoTp and (2) the uptake of priorities identified by the BoTp. The Queensland government used knowledge transfer to foster the uptake of the identified priorities. I identified communication channels between the state government and intended users with the potential to assist knowledge transfer. Nevertheless, various structural factors influenced the choice of policy instrument and limited the use of the available communication channels to disseminate priorities. These structural factors included: the relative power of interest groups; political changes; the level of centralisation in decision-making; and the relative strength of alternative priorities.\ud \ud The use of the BoTp information to prioritise investments was also compromised by agency-related factors. The scientific research literature presents growing evidence that perceptions of stakeholder engagement in conservation planning and implementation can affect the outcomes of planning processes. The literature also presents normative principles that can guide the governance of environmental decision-making. I asked potential users of the BoTp information about their perceptions of normative governance principles in relation to the decision of priorities for biodiversity conservation in Queensland and the BoTp. This process revealed that different stakeholders had different interpretations of species prioritisation: ranging from a deliberative process to define priorities in biodiversity conservation, to a technical, expert-based process. Inclusiveness was perceived as the most important normative principle.\ud \ud I then identified the perceived limitations of the technical-scientific quality of the BoTp process and its outcomes in terms of credibility and salience. Credibility was affected by concerns related to the use of expert judgement (rather than empirical evidence) to assess species, the lack of involvement of key experts in the planning process and the lack of confidence in the information supporting prioritisation. Importantly, even interviewees' perceptions of the technical aspects of conservation planning were socio-political in nature. For example, perceptions of credibility and salience were related to inclusiveness and the transparency of the decision-making process.\ud \ud My third research question asked: "how can conservation organisations improve species-based prioritisation to address the barriers to uptake?" I developed a guide to social assessment as part of the development of conservation planning initiatives. Conservation planners can contribute to addressing the biodiversity crisis by designing prioritisation tools that provide transparent and defensible information, with attention to normative and structural factors. Such tools can then be used to inform broader public debates on the definition of priorities for conservation and our inheritance to future generations

The social sustainability as a condition for conservation: the case of Ilha do Mel – Brazil

It is a consensus that the implementation of protected areas in inhabited places should attempt to match economic development and nature conservation. The aim of this research is to assess the compatibility between the tourism model developed at Ilha do Mel (Brazil) and its conservation. The field work consisted in interviews to key informants and to a representative sample of the economic agents of Ilha do Mel. The analysis attempted to integrate various sustainability dimensions considering its inter-relationship, and having the social sustainability of the population majority as the main criterion. The results reveal that the conflict between conservation and development at Ilha do Mel is centred in the question of who receives the benefits generated by the actual development model. The natural landscape is the major attractive of the local tourism; it is proposed that the extension of the tourism benefits to the majority of the population would increase the probability of engaging them in the conservation. However, this extension of the benefits will not happen spontaneously by the market action. A conscientious and committed governmental intervention is proposed, in order to control the market and protect the majority of the population