Fragile environment in need of resilient carers? A case of regional natural resources management in Perth,Western Australia

The Perth region is one of the 56 designated Natural Resources Management (NRM) regions in Australia. A community-led body – Perth Region NRM (PRNRM) – is in charge of overseeing NRM initiatives in the region. PRNRM heavily relies on Environmental Care Organisations (ECOs) that are involved in a wide variety of activities ranging from managing nature reserves to restoring ecosystems on a voluntary basis. While ECOs have become an integral component of PRNRM, they are often vulnerable because of the uncertain availability of financial and human resources. The way these organisations can overcome resource scarcities and become resilient is therefore significant for the effective delivery of regional NRM arrangements. However, what makes some ECOs in the Perth region more resilient than others is not well understood. This paper responds to this gap and explores the state of ECOs in the Perth region. The paper begins by reviewing the notion of resilience using a social capital lens. Drawing on a survey of ECOs and interviews, the method used for data collection and data analysis is presented next. Finally, the paper makes a case for fostering social capital as a way of enhancing the resilience of ECOs in the Perth region and beyond.     

The central role of centralisation in environmental policy initialisation

While economic research on environmental policy is mainly concerned with instruments, political science concentrates on actors. The issue of centralisation needs to be analysed using a multidisciplinary approach because it is connected with both actors and instruments. Linking the Advocacy Coalition Framework with an economic approach, the paper first develops an innovative model in order to understand the mechanisms of centralisation and decentralisation in the different phases of policy processes. Focusing on environmental policy, the idea is developed that environmental policy needs the push of centralisation in order to institutionalise the prevailing social norm, but then should be organised decentrally to account for regional differences. The examples of air pollution, climate change and urban sprawl are used to test the explanatory power of the theoretical approach.     

Maintaining Volunteer Commitment to Local Watershed Initiatives

Australia's Landcare program is advanced as a successful international example of local watershed groups and governments working together to improve natural resource management. One of the aspects considered critical in the success of watershed groups is engaging widespread participation. This paper draws on two regional surveys that explored burnout, or loss of engagement, among Landcare participants in the state of Victoria using the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Survey findings indicated that a large proportion of respondents were experiencing high burnout in terms of low personal accomplishment and suggested that there was potential for burnout to increase. The authors suggest that the expectations of watershed groups must be based around a realistic assessment of the capacity for volunteer groups to deliver improved environmental and social outcomes.     

Differentiation of determinants of low-cost and high-cost recycling

The bulk of research on recycling has been devoted to disentangling factors that affect it. Based on the low-cost hypothesis, we suggest that psychological factors differentially influence behaviors that are relatively less costly to perform compared to behaviors that are more costly to perform. Recycling has often been viewed as low-cost behavior, neglecting that recycling in different waste categories may vary in cost. The aim of the present study was to apply and extend the low-cost hypothesis by investigating whether beliefs about environmental consequences, knowledge, and norms differentially affect low-cost and high-cost recycling. A survey of 418 participants showed that knowledge, social norms, and personal norms were related to both low-cost and high-cost recycling, but the relation was significantly stronger for high-cost recycling. Personal norms partially mediated procedural knowledge and social norms in both low-cost and high-cost recycling. The findings emphasize the need to regard recycling as a multiform behavior and to analyse its determinants separately for different waste categories.     

浅议公路建设开发中对社会生态环境的影响

公路建设作为国家基础设施建设发展迅速。公路建设对社会经济的发展贡献巨大，然而当公路建成后便捷的交通对加剧人口迁移流动造成的社会生态环境影响，却没有引起有关部门的足够重视，尤其在干旱地区脆弱的生态环境下，这种影响更为深远。本文分析了这种不利影响并提出了防治对策和建议。     

民族地区社区参与旅游影响因素的实证研究

社区参与是推进旅游可持续发展的重要方式,但是在实践中社区参与旅游却难以推进。本研究以全国知名的武陵山景区为例,对社区参与旅游影响因素进行实证分析。根据社区参与旅游的影响因素设计相应的调查问卷,对景区当地居民实地调查,指出要推进社区参与旅游必须在旅游业利益分配中更注重当地居民的利益,政策制定过程中要听取当地居民的意见,加强基础教育和专业技能培训。     

乡村旅游发展的居民社区参与影响因素研究

社区参与是乡村旅游业可持续发展的动力机制之一,多种因素对社区充分参与产生了影响.通过对宏村等四个乡村旅游地的实证研究表明,文化归属、利益分配、效益认同、组织需求、政策支持、参与能力等六个因素是居民参与的主要影响因素,文化归属感是居民社区参与的首要影响因素;乡村旅游经营管理者应从制度上肃清障碍、提供合理的参与渠道、开展必要的居民培训,居民要加强自身文化知识和技能的培养,提升参与能力.     

Agency–Community Partnership in Landcare: Lessons for State-Sponsored Citizen Resource Management

/ With over 2500 Australian Landcare groups, 65,000 volunteer members, and considerable evidence of program impact, Landcare is an important example of state-sponsored rural development in a developed nation. The agency-community partnership is a fundamental element of Landcare and getting the partnership right is vital to long-term program success. After reviewing the emergence of Landcare in the state of Victoria, the author reports research from a 1995 survey of Victorian Landcare groups. Survey information highlighted the extent of agency-group contact, the important roles agency staff played in many Landcare groups, and the positive impact of agency contact and government funding upon group activity. Large majorities of groups reported they were satisfied with their relationship with agency staff. However, a majority of groups reported money or materials provided to manage land and water degradation was inadequate. Recently proposed changes to the Landcare program will provide government funding of work on private property and may address this concern. A majority of groups also reported support for leadership and management training was inadequate and respondents emphasized the need to revise program guidelines that limit funding for group coordinators. This information highlighted the importance of articulating a practical model of community participation in Australia and adopting a systematic approach to providing agency support for Landcare groups. Reflecting upon the Landcare experience, the author suggests some of the key elements of a practical model of state-sponsored citizen resource management contributing to rural development.KEY WORDS: Landcare; Australia; Community participation; Rural development; Citizen resource management; Sustainable agriculture     

Urban community gardening,social capital,and \"integration\" – a mixed method exploration of urban \"integration-gardening\" in Copenhagen,Denmark

ABSTRACT

This study examines a community garden in Copenhagen, Denmark, \"The Urban Integration Gardens\" that endeavours to strengthen social integration in the local multicultural neighbourhood. The \"community\" in the gardens is explored, with a focus on how they foster social capital, particularly opportunities for \"bridging\" social capital. A mixed-methods approach is used, by employing a qualitative analysis of gardeners’ perceptions of \"community\", diversity and inclusivity, through the lens of \"cognitive\" social capital, and the meanings the gardeners assign to their experiences, and how they understand their involvement in the gardens. We also examine \"structural\" dimensions of social capital, involving quantitative data from a questionnaire and data from Statistics Denmark, comparing data concerning socio-demographic backgrounds from gardeners and residents in the local neighbourhood and Copenhagen. Major findings include that the garden generates both bonding and bridging \"cognitive\" social capital, and the gardeners consistently agreed that the garden has a strong community, and is permeated by diversity and inclusivity. Nonetheless, data from Denmark’s Statistics Office reveal that the garden does not \"represent\" the diversity in the neighbourhood regarding the distribution of members with a Western/non-Western background, as well as social class. This suggests that endeavours to involve co-citizens with non-Western backgrounds and gardeners with lower social status are restrained by potential structural barriers, which limits the \"width\" of bridging social capital in the garden.