Natural resources directly support rural livelihoods and underpin much of the wealth of rural and regional Australia. Climate change manifesting as increasing frequency and/or severity of extreme weather events poses a threat to sustainable management of natural resources because the recurrence of events may exceed the resilience of natural systems or the coping capacity of social systems.
For this project, funded by the Australian Government’s Natural Resource Management Planning for Climate Change in collaboration with NSW Local Land Services and the Institute of Agriculture UTas, ISF reported the findings from a series of participatory workshops with communities in eight discrete landscapes in south east NSW. The workshops focused on how natural resource management (NRM) is considered in the Prevent-Prepare-Respond-Recover emergency management cycle. We found that NRM is generally considered only in relation to the protection of life and property and not for the intrinsic value of ecosystem services that support communities.
We made three recommendations to improve NRM under extreme climate events. Firstly, the support to communities offered by emergency management agencies could be bolstered by guidance material co-produced with government NRM agencies. Secondly, financial assistance from government should specifically target the restoration and maintenance of green infrastructure to avoid loss of social-ecological resilience. Thirdly, action by natural resource-dependent communities should be encouraged and supported to better protect ecosystem services in preparation for future extreme events.
RESEARCH OUTPUTS
Managing Natural Resources for Extreme Climate Events: Differences in Risk Perception Among Urban and Rural Communities in Sydney, Australia (2016) (Report)
Climate Change Adaptation, Resilience and Hazards, Springer, Germany, pp. 181-195.
Ensuring Resilience of Natural Resources under Exposure to Extreme Climate Events (2016) (Report)
Resources, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 1-21.
An adaptive capacity guide book: Assessing, building and evaluating the capacity of communities to adapt in a changing climate (2015) (Report)
Southern Slopes Climate Change Adaptation Research Partnership (SCARP) University of Technology Sydney and University of Tasmania. Hobart, Tasmania.
Researchers
-
Associate Professor and Research Director -
Adjunct Fellow
Years
- 2015-2016
Location
- New South Wales
Client
- Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment
Partners
- NSW Local Land Services
- Institute of Agriculture UTas
