A collaborative design to adaptively manage for landscape sustainability in north Australia: lessons from a decade of cooperative research |
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Authors: | Gordon Duff David Garnett Peter Jacklyn Jill Landsberg John Ludwig Joe Morrison Paul Novelly Dan Walker Peter Whitehead |
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Institution: | (1) Tropical Savannas Cooperative Research Centre (TSCRC), Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, 0909, Australia;(2) Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries, Mareeba, QLD, 4880, Australia;(3) Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), PO Box 780, Atherton, QLD, 4883, Australia;(4) North Australia Indigenous Land & Sea Management Alliance, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, 0909, Australia;(5) Western Australia Department of Agriculture & Food, PO Box 19, Kununurra, WA, 6743, Australia;(6) Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), GPO Box 284, Canberra City, ACT, 2601, Australia; |
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Abstract: | Approaches to manage for the sustainable use of natural and cultural resources in a landscape can have many different designs.
One design is adaptive collaborative landscape management (ACLM) where research providers and users work closely together
on projects to develop resources while adaptively managing to sustain or maintain landscapes in the long term. We propose
that collaborative projects are more useful for achieving outcomes than integrative projects where participants merely join
their separate contributions. To foster collaborative research projects to adaptively manage landscapes in northern Australia,
a Tropical Savannas Cooperative Research Centre (TSCRC) was established in 1995. The TSCRC is a joint venture of major organizations
involved in research and land management. This paper is our perspective on the four most important ‘lessons learned’ after
using a ACLM-type approach for over 10 y. We learnt that collaboration (working in combination) not necessarily integration
(combining parts into a whole) achieved sustainable outcomes. We found that integration across culturally diverse perspectives
seldom achieved sustainable solutions because it devalued the position of the less empowered participants. In addition, positive
outcomes were achieved when participants developed trust and respect for each other by embracing and respecting their differences
and by sharing unifying concepts such as savanna health. Another lesson learned was that a collaborative organization must
act as an honest broker by resisting advocacy of one view point over another. Finally, we recognized the importance of strongly
investing in communication and networking so that people could adaptively learn from one another’s experiences, understand
each other’s challenges and respect each other’s choices. Our experience confirms the usefulness of the ACLM approach and
highlights its role in the process of sustaining healthy landscapes. |
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