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Session 3 — Regional planning and management

Chair: Peter Whitehead

Outback livelihoods: continuing conundrums: Rolf Gerritsen

An investigation of the possibility of establishing an Aboriginal natural resource management enterprise, using the market based instrument of carbon credit trading.

This talk describes the sub-project and then goes on to outline conundrums created by the “institutional” implications for the future of remote Aboriginal communities in northern (and central) Australia that arose out of the project and the resulting requirements for further research.

The Other Side of the Roper: Work ideology in Ngukurr  Eva McRae-Williams

This presentation will provide an overview of my PhD thesis presently entitled Understandings and Values of Work in Ngukurr. It will concentrate on my analysis of the ethnographic data collected during periods of fieldwork. I began this research project in July 2005 and hope to submit my final draft in the middle of this year.

The concept of work is complex, its purpose, structure and value has changed over time and its meaning can be interpreted from many historical, social and cultural perspectives. My thesis draws upon the work ideologies inherent in Western culture and those which have developed within an Australian Aboriginal community. It describes the issues and differences within and between these ideologies and how they have influenced Aboriginal perspectives and experiences of work within a specific Aboriginal community; Ngukurr in South East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia.

What does savanna regional natural resource management deliver? How do we know? Cathy Robinson and Bruce Taylor

Regional natural resource management (NRM) is now widely advocated across Australia as part of growing policy commitment towards integrated approach to environmental management. The ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of selected regional NRM programs are critical questions now being asked by government program and regional community investors. Yet as the findings of this research highlight, collaborative efforts to evaluate outcomes generated from NRM delivery in Northern Australia is a challenge.

Enhancing community benefits from regional development: it’s not just what you do but how you do it: Natalie Stoeckl and Owen Stanley

The presentation is based on the publication entitled Regional Economic Multipliers in Australia’s Tropical Savannas which was one of the outputs from the Outback Livelihoods Project. Some important questions which motivated the research were:

1. Which industries create the most regional economic benefit in terms of direct and downstream (multiplier) effects?
2. How can policy be changed so as to increase the size of regional benefits?
3. How does the total regional economic benefit of an industry compare with its environmental and/or social cost?

The answer to any of these questions is assisted by knowledge of regional multipliers – hence the CRC’s interest in the multiplier case-study; although the study only focused on (1) and (2), leaving much scope for further research on (3).