Cultural Stewardship Accountability of Seed Bank Institutions for Indigenous Knowledge

A growing emphasis among seed banks in Australia and globally is the collection of seed and information associated with wild crop relatives of food and fodder crops. This is part of scientific efforts to store and document plant traits that may prove useful to deal with risks to food and bio security in the face of global climate changes. This has implications for indigenous communities because of the risk that indigenous knowledge may be collected and included as ‘data’ rather than as knowledge with significant cultural tethering. This articl provides a theoretical context for institutional seed banks to engage with indigenous people and specify indigenous knowledge stewardship accountability. This should help seed banks to operate with sensitivity to cultural wellbeing and minimise the risks from failure to satisfy accountability for indigenous knowledge stewardship. The article identifies four interrelated dimensions of indigenous knowledge stewardship, and identifies a tentative process for institutions to adapt this to indigenous knowledge stewardship strategy and practice. The process for realising indigenous knowledge stewardship accountability is the subject of further research

USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Includes bibliographical references.A In order to promote irrigation sustainability through reporting by irrigation water managers around Australia, we have developed an adaptive framework and methodology for improved triple-bottom-line reporting. The Irrigation Sustainability Assessment Framework (ISAF) was developed to provide a comprehensive framework for irrigation sustainability assessment and integrated triple-bottom-line reporting, and is structured to promote voluntary application of this framework across the irrigation industry, with monitoring, assessment and feedback into future planning, in a continual learning process. Used in this manner the framework serves not only as a "reporting tool", but also as a "planning tool" for introducing innovative technology and as a "processes implementation tool" for enhanced adoption of new scientific research findings across the irrigation industry. The ISAF was applied in case studies to selected rural irrigation sector organisations, with modifications to meet their specific interests and future planning

The potential for improved water management using a legal social contract

This review examines the proposed social contract to improve water management in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand. This contract defines expectations of resource access and use, forming a boundary of responsibility between entitlement holder and society. The type of expectations may range from community wellbeing to freedom of private interests. In effect, this creates a tension between other regarding action for resource stewardship and the freedom to self-manage a resource entitlement with minimal accountability. The tension is embedded in western liberal legal frameworks that simultaneously seek enforcement of stewardship obligations while protecting the freedom of private interests in resources. In Canterbury a collaborative resource management strategy for water, supporting a legal social contract shows the tension in practice.This research was carried out using an Endeavour Research Fellowship, an Australian Government initiative administered by the Department of Science, Innovation and Workplace Relations

The duty of care: an ethical basis for sustainable natural resource management in farming?

Other chapters in this book have highlighted that the concept of a social licence invokes responsibilities to the community and the environment that go beyond readily specified property rights, and clearly specified legal obligations. One of the mechanisms that has evolved in an attempt to realign legal interest with social expectations of moral 'rightness' is to convert these expectations into a legal duty of care. This chapter explores the concepts that underpin this novel approach to bridging the gap between largely undefined social responsibilities and more specific legal obligations. Duty of care has been incorporated into a number of natural resource statutes in the belief that it will provide an effective tool for promoting farmers' sustainable use of natural resources, while at the same time providing greater certainty of legal obligations with less 'red tape' cost to primary producers. This broad ambition of the farming sector is linked to meeting social licence and formal legal requirements, but what is concealed are different expectations about what is meant by duty of care and what it might achieve. The expectations range from legally requiring virtuous behaviour by farmers (achievement of which may deserve to be rewarded, perhaps by improved access to resources) to expectations of minimal legal accountability (non-achievement of which may justify punishment, perhaps by denial of access). These different expectations will be explored in this chapter, beginning with a discussion of the nature of environmental responsibility in relation to farmers. We will consider how the changing nature of that responsibility is at the heart of the emergence of statutory duty of care in natural resource regulations. There is a fundamental question of whether a statutory duty of care is intended to legally enforce a minimum level of performance, or require virtuous behaviour that takes into account wider expectations about public responsibility. Both conceptualisations are argued in advocacy of a farmer's legal duty of care for the environment

Is there still an economic right to water? An analysis of the intersection of rights and regulatory regimes

This policy brief addresses how the meaning and scope of farmers’ economic rights to access and use water are changing through increasing emphasis on stewardship responsibilities. It outlines how regulation is increasingly seeking closer alignment of water use and stewardship by injecting public interest considerations into the legal interpretation of water rights. This has the potential to enhance the public accountability of private right holders. Market-based water resource management in England and Wales is currently being considered by the UK government as one option for further promoting water stewardship. The policy brief highlights key issues discussed during a workshop held in Oxford on 19 March 2013 that addressed the question whether it is still meaningful to talk of an economic ‘right’ to water in the context of increasing restrictions on water use in England and Wales. The policy brief concludes with a series of recommendations. An appropriate legal and institutional framework for delivering an integrated catchment approach must be developed in order to align water use with water stewardship. Farmers, as managers of extensive land areas, need to be part of this. Lastly, integrated catchment management needs to entail clear standards of performance for water users in order to align water use with water stewardship.</p

The Potential for Improved Water Management Using a Legal Social Contract

This review examines the proposed social contract to improve water management in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand. This contract defines expectations of resource access and use, forming a boundary of responsibility between entitlement holder and society. The type of expectations may range from community wellbeing to freedom of private interests. In effect, this creates a tension between other regarding action for resource stewardship and the freedom to self-manage a resource entitlement with minimal accountability. The tension is embedded in western liberal legal frameworks that simultaneously seek enforcement of stewardship obligations while protecting the freedom of private interests in resources. In Canterbury a collaborative resource management strategy for water, supporting a legal social contract shows the tension in practice

The Potential for Improved Water Management Using a Legal Social Contract

The 'Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Act 2010 (NZ)' (the ECan Act) was introduced to address concerns about the allocation, use and management of water in the Canterbury Region (NZ). The Act emerged amid increasing demands upon water resources and an interest in reform. A principle tool for achieving improvement is to adopt the Canterbury Water Management Strategy and its preference for obligations defined by a social contract. This article examines the social contract as a means to improve water management. The contract defines expectations of resource access and use, forming a boundary of responsibility between entitlement holder and society. Such reforms illustrate a tension between resource stewardship and private interests that is likely to generate conflict. In resolving such conflict, examples show that the legal framework is likely to favour the protection of private interests. This draws the effectiveness of a social contract into question. The article concludes with the version of improved water management that is likely to be favoured by the ECan Act

Farming, Good Neighbours, and Protecting the General Interest in Water Resources: How Effective is the Promise of Sustainable Watershed Management in Quebec?

The framework for implementation of sustainable watershed management in Quebec comprises a mix of statutory accountability, compliance with plans, and civil liability. At the centre of this framework is the goal of realizing collective responsibility for the protection and preservation of water now and for future generations. Implementation of this framework to achieve that goal, and the extent to which it enables farmers to deliver sustainable watershed management practices, is a case study in natural resource governance arrangements and sustainable resource management behaviour change. This article reviews governance arrangements for sustainable watershed management in Quebec and presents research on farmer accountability within sustainable watershed systems. The analysis considers the extent to which farmer accountability for protection of water is defined by sustainable watershed management planning processes. Such processes are focussed on strategic imperatives that are not effectively connected with the practice of private rights and interests. With this in mind, I question how effectively accountability for sustainable watershed management translates into practical guidance that enables farmers to manage resources as good neighbours and meet their duty of water protection. Obstacles identified include: a tendency for the National Assembly, regulators, and courts to absolve farmers from liability for environmental harm; the lack of sanctions for non-compliance with a plan; a lack of financial incentives to modify farm practices; and the fact that watershed organizations lack powers to compel participation in the adoption of a plan

Australian Seed Banks: moving toward seed and seed data collection practice in the context of Indigenous people, knowledge and traditions?

This chapter draws on research addressing an identified need within Australian seed banks for guidance about institutional processes to effectively manage the risks surrounding Indigenous cultural knowledge and seeds. The chapter begins by describing seed bank performance as part of a social responsibility system, where there is a need for institutions to respectfully engage with communities, the people that make up those communities and the knowledge those people hold. The challenge introduced in the first part of the chapter is for governance arrangements to facilitate seed bank practitioners' appreciation of seeds and seed data as being socially grounded, linking Indigenous people, their traditions, knowledge and landscapes. This emphasises the cultural importance of knowledge linked with a biophysical seed sample. The potential erosion of traditional knowledge and cultural integrity associated with seed collection and banking processes prompts questions about developing governance arrangements within seed banks to create synergy rather than conflicts with Indigenous people about seeds and associated knowledge. The law has a part to play in facilitating the transmission of reliable information between parties involved in such transactions

Social Licence to Irrigate: The Boundary Problem

The ability of an irrigation business to use water depends on having a property right to access water, but exercise of this right also depends on government decisions to allocate water or invest in water infrastructure. While this secure property right may be necessary, it is far from sufficient. A social licence is also needed. It has been suggested that a legal 'duty of care', or triple bottom line reporting will protect that social licence. This article suggests that such rhetoric masks a fundamental management problem of the lack of boundaries to social accountability. Managers face a conflict between their legal duties to manage the enterprise in the (economic) interests of its owners and the vaguely defined expectation that they will meet unspecified social obligations