Integrated land management

About the project

This project will explore barriers and investigate options for successful implementation of integrated land management (ILM) across a transect of landscape types, uses and management from highly modified peri-urban to natural ecosystems. It will identify barriers to the implementation of ILM through analysis of relevant governance policy and processes at the state level and determine how these are interpreted and implemented at the local scale, with respect to landscape values such as (a) provision of ecosystem services, (b) production of goods and commercial services (c) social functions, and (d) environmental functions. The nature of interactions between different actors in landscape governance will be investigated through social analysis techniques such as network mapping. Transect analysis will provide insights into variation in practice from landscapes dominated by intensive agricultural production and rapidly changing demographic settings to intact natural landscapes within national parks. The project will produce analysis and reports to guide the implementation of policy for land management in a changing climate. This will add value to research already undertaken by DPI and partners in the SW Climate Change Forum, support implementation of the Land and Biodiversity White Paper and identify gaps in knowledge and fruitful areas of future research.

Project phases and timelines

This project involves three phases: 1. A working version of integrated landscape management will be developed based on analysis of the literature, workshops and on-line survey. This will develop and apply metrics covering the production of commercial goods and services, ecosystem services, social functions and environmental functions. A review of landscape related governance in Victoria, and comparative regions, will assess the current level of knowledge of integrated landscape management, relate this assessment to governance systems, and identify innovative approaches undertaken. In case study regions, there will be identification and general survey of key stakeholders involved in formal and informal levels and types of governance. This will include identification of current policies directed towards integrated land management, and which metrics are used to survey outcomes. At one level, we are looking for ethnographic narratives that can be triangulated back to supporting (enabling) or unsupportive (barriers), as policies that enhanced adaptation and innovation and offered deliberate ways of integrating practices and processes or stopped them.

Phase one outputs:

• A project report “Scoping the challenge of Integrated Landscape Management under Changing Climate”.
• A project report “Defining Integrated Landscape Management for Climate Change Adaptation”.
• A briefing paper.

2. Different land uses, land management and governance arrangements will be described across the study transects. In-depth interviews will be held with individuals in different land management and governance roles from across the transects to elicit key attitudes and insights to governance, especially where evidence and values affect outcomes. A network analysis of influence and interactions of different levels of governance on and with each other will be undertaken to test how intention in terms of policy affects outcomes based on the results of the revealed analysis. This will identify a range of enablers and barriers amongst governance options affecting integrated landscape management. The study will utilise a combined communities of practice (CoP) (Wenger 1998) and social network analysis (SNA) approach that will provide both qualitative and quantitative data for triangulating with in-depth interviews across the spectrum and with the ethnographic narratives.

Phase two outputs:

• The major output for this phase will comprise A project report “Meeting the challenge of climate change adaptation in peri-urban and rural landscapes: Impediments and enablers for integrated land management approaches”.

3. (This stage will take place subject to further funding from January 2012) The results of other studies (eg scenarios and relevant regional assessments) will show how impacts, adaptation and land-use change may be affected in future. The results of stage 2 will be applied to these studies to show how enablers and barriers within governance may play out in a changing landscape. A broad model will be developed that combines various forms of governance options (eg planning, legislation, public and private markets) to maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of land management and provide for more resilience and adaption capacity with land management agencies and the land management community. It is expected that many gaps in our understanding will be revealed, so many recommendations for future assessments will be made. It will be important to synchronize deliverables from this project with the decision making processes already underway.

Project team

Project team leader: Andy T.D. Bennett (Deakin)
Roger Jones (Victoria)
Ruth Beilin (Melbourne)
Michael Buxton (RMIT)
Philip Wallis and Raymond Ison (Monash)
David Lowe and Kevin O’Toole (Deakin)
Research officer: Quentin Farmar-Bowers (Deakin)

Progress and outcomes to date

1. A half-day workshop was held on 3 November 2010 in Melbourne, with the following purpose:

• To assist the project team in developing a working version/definition of ILM;
• To scope the challenge of ILM under changing climate;
• To conduct a SWOT analysis of current policies and governance of ILM in Victoria, and
• To improve communication between the project team and stakeholders in government and CMA’s.

Workshop Outcome

The workshop was attended by 28 people, the aims were achieved, and a briefing paper was drafted. A draft policy brief, drawing on the workshop issues and outcomes, has been submitted to VCCCAR for consideration. once pubished, the policy brief will comprise the first output for stage 1 of the project.

Future milestones

The ILM second report due in October 2011 is being prepared, to be entitled “Defining Integrated Landscape Management for Climate Change Adaptation”. The material for the report is being supported by a literature review and discussions with public servants in regard to agency strategies and project.

Find out more about the Integrated Land Management project

Project coordinator: Quentin Farmar-Bowers, Deakin University
Email: quentin.farmarbowers@deakin.edu.au