Sustainability

This Discussion Paper examines the concepts of 'governance', 'good governance' and 'sustainable development' in the context of Australian Indigenous communities and regions. It explores the hypothesis that there is vital link between governance and sustainable development. The first half of the paper defines the key concepts and re ....

It is generally understood that local people with local knowledge and a longterm interest in their area are uniquely equipped to create sustainable solutions to local needs. At the same time, higherlevel support and resourcing is often needed to make 'grassroots' solutions work. Current governance models thus posit a facilitatory v ....

A research-based collaboration with a rural community engaged with the risks and opportunities involved in renewable energy production. Natimuk Township, within the Victorian wheat and sheep belt, is atypical in its renewal by tree-change migrants attracted by the nearby rock climbing destination of Mt Arapiles. The collaboration a ....

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW (NCC)'s Bushfire Program is unique amongst conservation organisations. The Program has been running for over ten years, focusing its campaign work mainly on government policy, legislation and commissions of inquiry. However, the Program was originally initiated to provide support to over 70 co ....

The northeast of Brazil is a semiarid region where water scarcity is a major problem dealt with by the construction of dams. This policy generated a dense reservoir network in the region, resulting in a complex system. The impacts of the network have been assessed, and the results showed that the existence of a large number of small dams upstream ....

In this paper we look at the impacts of a new industry, namely unconventional gas, on rural decline. Rural decline is defined as comprising loss of rural youth, reduced human capital and increasing rural poverty. Since the start of the current century, the unconventional gas industry has been expanding around the world, often in close proximity t ....

Commercial kangaroo harvest contributes to sustainable regional communities and rangeland environments by bringing social, economic and environmental benefits. However, the South Australian kangaroo industry is not delivering these benefits to its potential capacity. South Australian harvest rates are lower than any of the other st ....

The Strategy aims to maintain or improve the condition of our waterways so they can support environmental, social, cultural and economic values that are important to communities. It provides direction for regional decision-making, investment and management issues for waterways, as well as the roles and responsibilities of management agencies. R ....

In the recent Boyer Lectures, Prof. Marcia Langton argued that mining is providing Indigenous communities with an opportunity to move out of the economic margins and grow into a new middle class of wealth and opportunity. But is mining the only way forward for Indigenous communities seeking to develop economically sustainable futures? And are sup ....

Twelve case studies demonstrate how the irrigation industry is rising to the challenges of sustainable use of water resources. The case studies are of water use planning on a cotton farm in Moree NSW, subsurface irrigation on a tomato farm in Rochester Vic, salt interception to reduce salt flows into the River Murray from a citrus ....

Most people working in NRM will agree that the institutional landscape in rural environments is overwhelmingly complex (see Figure 1). Academics regard such institutional complexity as intractable or ‘wicked’. Increasing concern about institutional complexity in rural areas, combined with the need to manage ecosystems at a bioregional scale, ....

Can we develop land use policy that balances the conflicting views of stakeholders in a catchment while moving toward long term sustainability? Adaptive management provides a strategy for this whereby measures of catchment performance are compared against performance goals in order to progressively improve policy. However, the feedback ....

Towards the end of the past decade, signs were emerging as to future challenges associated with impending intersections between the ageing of global rural populations and their impacts on agricultural production and food safety. In a landmark paper for the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Iaquinta et al. (1999) made a ....

Since its inception in 1990, Land and Water Australia (LWA) (formally Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation (LWRRDC)) has been guided by a vision that investments in research and development will help Australians respect and understand Australia's unique and diverse landscapes and foster a sustainable future ....