Identifying Drivers and Barriers to Biodiversity Policy Implementation in Regional Victoria
Ecopolitics XV Conference
New approaches to Environmental Governance / Policy learning and new environmental policy instruments
John Ford
To protect biodiversity the state of Victoria has introduced a range of legislation over the past 16 years. Much of this legislation is implemented at a local level with the help of local government and Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) who have the autonomy to develop regionally based implementation procedures. A case study of the Honeysuckle Creek catchment in North Eastern Victoria has been used to identify the drivers behind implementation of biodiversity policy.
Local government in the Honeysuckle Creek catchment has an important role in protecting biodiversity. For example the shire is responsible for making decisions on planning native vegetation removal. However issues such as education and welfare consistently out-compete biodiversity for resources because of the welfare needs associated with rural poverty and an aged population. The shire must also compromise between divergent views within the community and sections of government.
Biodiversity conservation appears to be a higher priority for the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority (GB-CMA) than local government. Even so the GB-CMA must link biodiversity outcomes to social and economic outcomes. To do this effectively it uses a collaborative decision making approach that consults community and industry representatives. This approach plays an important role in negotiating the sometimes different priorities of local communities and state government.
This paper suggests that by understanding the drivers these organisations have when implementing biodiversity policy it might be possible to introduce more appropriate and effective policy in the future.
Introduction
Biodiversity provides important ecosystem services that the community relies upon for economic, social and environmental development. Therefore, the loss of biodiversity can be considered a major risk to the well being of the Australian community (CSIRO, 2001). To protect and enhance biodiversity, Federal and State governments have introduced legislation such as the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. However, most of this legislation relies on regional organisations to be implemented at a local level. In Victoria, the largest and most influential of the regional organisations responsible for natural resource management are the Local Government and Catchment Management Authorities (CMA) (Bellamy et.al., 2002). Local Government administers Native Vegetation clearance applications in Victoria (Productivity Commission, 2003), it also administers planning controls that control land use (Maunsell Australia Pty Ltd, 2003; Budge, 2002; Buxton, 2002). Catchment Management Authorities on the other hand are responsible for developing and implementing a community driven Regional Catchment Strategy that defines goals for protecting and enhancing native vegetation (Department of Natural Resources and Environment, 2002).
Despite the importance of the role these two organisations have in the survival of biodiversity, State and Federal policy makers sometimes express frustration with them (Pannell, 2001). The policy makers see these organisations as non compliant in implementing State and Federal policy as it was originally intended (Pannell, 2001; Buxton et.al., 2003). They are also seen as too easily influenced by regional interests (Pannell, 2001; Buxton et.al., 2003). This suggests the priorities of the regional organisations are not aligned with those of their state and federal counterparts. Therefore the drivers behind organisations implementing biodiversity policy may be different to those of policy makers.
Using the North Eastern Victorian sub catchment of Honeysuckle Creek as a case study, this paper investigates the institutional setting in which biodiversity policy is implemented. In particular, the drivers behind the implementation of policy by the Shire of Strathbogie and the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, as they are the regional institutions whose role it is to implement biodiversity policy in the Honeysuckle Creek Catchment. While this is not a comprehensive study that aims to provide solutions to biodiversity policy implementation, its aim is to encourage discussion and understanding in regard to some of the drivers and barriers of implementing biodiversity policy at a regional level.
Methods
The Honeysuckle Creek catchment is 170 km North East of Melbourne (figure 1) and provides a focus for the research. The key reasons for selecting the study area were that this region of Victoria involves issues that are important in terms of long-term land use change. That it was also seen as such by farmers and biodiversity specialists. It was also important for the study area to be relatively small to allow in-depth exploration of a relatively small number of issues. Further optional criteria were that the area:
- Contain a number of different agricultural activities.
- Contain a number of native biodiversity maintenance conflicts.
- Have good information on native biodiversity assets and agricultural enterprises and practices.
- Include field study sites of other studies and research projects that may be helpful to the project (eg. Heartlands, Landmark, Water Supply Catchments)
In particular the project from which this paper is derived investigated the drivers behind the decision making processes involved in land use change on private land (Crosthwaite et.al., 2004). This project used the Honeysuckle Creek Catchment as a study area for what can be revealed about land use change on private land. How well it represented the rest of Victoria in terms of environmental, economic or social characteristics, was not critical.
Figure 1. Location of study area.
Originally this study was to focus on policy from all levels of government and its direct/indirect influence on land use change. However due to time constraints, this study concentrated on the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority (GB-CMA) and Strathbogie Shire Council (as this shire covers most, but not all, of the study area). Both organisations coordinate most land use policy within the study area.
The GB-CMA policies relevant to the Mid Goulburn Broken Implementation Area, within which the study area fell, have been the focus of this study. Organisations and individuals involved in collaborative research with the CMA were contacted, and where possible draft or final reports were used to describe the nature and intention of research.
To better understand the planning issues faced by local government in rural areas, submissions to the Rural Zones Review (Department of Sustainability and Environment, 2003) were used to construct a broad thematic analysis. This was used to analyse Strathbogie Shire Council policy, in particular, its local planning scheme. It was also used to assist in the analysis of the data resulting from interviews of agency staff responsible for planning decisions and/or the Native Vegetation Retention Controls in the study area.
Grounded Theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) approach was used in the collection and analysis of interview data from the GB-CMA, Department of Sustainability and Environment and Shire of Strathbogie. Interviews commenced with an explanation of the project and its objectives followed by a general question asking individuals "to describe what you do". The interview continued from this initial question as a 'natural conversation' with no prompted questioning. Data was collected in note form. Concepts were named according to the meanings given by the interviewee. These concepts were grouped into similar categories and compared with the thematic analysis of the submissions to the Rural Zones Review.
The themes developed in interviews and Rural Zones Review analysis were also used to analyse GB-CMA and Strathbogie Shire publications, in particular Web Sites, Catchment Strategies, Native Vegetation Strategies, Meeting Minutes and Management Plans.
Background
Shire of Strathbogie
The Shire of Strathbogie is obligated to provide a wide range of services to the community. Schedule 1 of the Local Government Act (1989) defines the function of councils to include the following:
- general public services
- health, education, welfare and other community services
- planning and land use, including property services
- recreational and cultural services
- roads
- any other functions relating to the peace, order and good government of the municipal district.
Throughout the state of Victoria Local Government is also obliged to administer the Native Vegetation Retention Controls to control the removal or alteration of Native Vegetation. Amendments to the Planning and Environment Act (1989) in the early 1990s brought the Native Vegetation Retention Controls into being. The are administered through the planning permit process by implementation and enforcement of planning scheme controls.
Traditional broad acre agriculture is both the biggest employer (Shire of Strathbogie, 2004b) and main land use within the shire (ABS cited in Wilson et.al., 2003). However less traditional agricultural enterprises such as equine, viticulture, piggeries and poultry farming are slowly replacing traditional broad acre farming in some areas (Shire of Strathbogie, 2004b).
The Strathbogie Shire serves a population of over 9,000 people living in the towns of Euroa, Nagambie, Violet Town, Avenal, Ruffy, Mangalore and Strathbogie, as well as in the rural areas outside of the townships (Shire of Strathbogie, 2004a). It is a community that is older than the average for Regional Victoria, for example, 41 % of the population is older than 50 years of age, compared with 31% for Regional Victoria. In addition the proportion of people earning less than $500 per week is 66 % compared with a state average of 62 %. The Shire of Strathbogie also reports in its Municipal Strategic Statement (MSS) that fifty percent of households have a weekly incomes less than $400 and that the shire has the second highest per capita debt of all Victorian local government areas (Shire of Strathbogie, 2003a). The aging of the shires population is predicted to continue, this has important implications for the shire as it suggests that the future demand for aged care services and the cost to the shire of providing them is going to rise (Shire of Strathbogie, 2003a).
Goulburn Broken Catchment Authority
Located between the Great Dividing Range and the Murray River the GB-CMA is one of ten catchment regions in the state of Victoria. It comprises 10.5% of the state (2,3431,655ha) of this area the Honeysuckle Creek case study area accounts for 155,286ha. The Goulburn Broken region is significant in terms of the Victorian economy as the value of annual agricultural production and regional economy activity are worth $1.3 billion and $7.8 billion respectively. This economic activity is responsible for employing 77,000 people in the region (GB-CMA, 2003a).
The GB-CMAwas established under the Catchment and Land Protection Act (1994) in 1997. The GB-CMA's mission statement defines it's role as the 'peak natural resource management organisation' that will lead the 'protection and enhancement of the Catchment's land and water resources to improve social well being, environmental quality and the sustainable productive capacity'. As part of its role as the peak NRM organisation it is obliged to develop a Regional Catchment Strategy (RCS) that outlines how the GB-CMA is going to manage environmental issues in the catchment area it is responsible for. The GB-CMA also has the regional responsibility of implementing other legislation and strategies that have the potential to affect biodiversity. These are:
- The Water Act (1988)
- The Victorian River Health Strategy (2002)
- Victoria's Native Vegetation Management – a framework for action (2002)
Results and Discussion
Local Government
In both interview and publication data, increasing demands of an aging population was identified by council as an important driver in its strategic decision making. Mainly because of the cost associated with providing extra social services to an aged population and the limited opportunity to increase revenue base because of low household incomes (Shire of Strathbogie, 2003a). This poses a dilemma for the shire as shire staff stated that they had limited long term funding options. The shire sees the long term solution to this challenge as encouraging economic development. As economic development will increase wealth and the economic well being of ratepayers in the shire, in doing so making it possible to expand the revenue base of council by increasing council rates (Shire of Strathbogie, 2003a). It follows that the shire actively promotes investment in intensive agriculture and rural lifestyle properties in it Municipal Strategic Statement (MSS) and on its website. This has an important implication for biodiversity, as the point where land use changes from one use or owner to another is the point at which the greatest potential exists for either biodiversity loss or gain (Budge, 2002; Buxton, 2002)
Council minutes suggest that an important driver in the council decision making process is the ability of the community to accept change. Council has considered this so important that it has undertaken a Community Capacity Building Project to assist the community to make the most out of economic development (Shire of Strathbogie, 2003b). In doing so the shire hopes to overcome 'vested interests and divergent views within the community', a challenge many rural shires face when attempting to implement new and innovative policy (Budge, 2002; Buxton, 2002; Gray, 1991). In minutes of council meetings the shire expresses its desire for the community to be able to openly discuss complex issues associated with development. This is potenitally beneficial for biodiversity as it means that the community will be more able to work through complex project development proposals in an objective manner, making it more likely that multiple outcomes can be achieved.
Department of Sustainability and Environment staff expressed frustration with Strathbogie shire's unwillingness to complete Roadside Management Plans, even though the shire had been one of the first local government areas involved in developing Roadside Management Strategies. Shire staff indicated that they were happy for DSE staff to lead environmental initiatives such as Management Plans for roadsides or proposals for environmental overlays. This suggests that there is no driver for the shire to lead environmental initiatives and that it is relatively comfortable to let other organisations lead environmental initiatives.
Although unwilling to lead environmental projects or policy, the shire is willing to lead in terms of economic development. The priorities of the shire are particularly evident in its planning scheme and on its website. The shires planning scheme is particularly focussed on encouraging investment in new industries in the shire. The Municipal Strategic Statement (MSS) identifies the equine industry and intensive animal industries in particular as industries which the shire has a comparative advantage and states on its website that it will actively encourage these industries using the planning process (Shire of Strathbogie, 2004b).
GB-CMA
Alongside environmental issues such as salinity, water quality and biodiversity that are its core business, regional economic development is a recurring theme throughout its Regional Catchment Strategy (Ford, 2004). This stems from community surveys of the Goulburn Broken region (Norman et.al., 2003). These surveys found that the community placed the highest importance on a healthy regional economy that created jobs and wealth, followed by a safe and cohesive community and then an environment that provided amenity and recreation opportunities. Despite the perceived importance of economic growth by the community and GB-CMA policies directly related to economic growth were not found in GB-CMA policy documents.
Instead it sees economic development (in terms represented by figure 2), as enabling the community to afford the investment needed to protect and enhance the regional environment. The approximately $20 million in on-ground works annually (Peter Howard pers comm). Therefore, any reduction in the health of regional industries that affects the regional economy potentially puts the community's capacity to pay for on ground works at risk.
Unlike the Shire of Strathbogie that has policies directly related to economic development the use of the term key consideration might be more appropriate when applied to the GB-CMA. While no formal policy exists 'driving' the GB-CMA to encourage/discourage economic development in their decision making, it is important for them to 'consider' economic development when making decisions as it has the potential to affect privately funded on-ground works.
Figure 2. Stylised representation of the enabling environment the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority encourages to achieve environmental outcomes.
Another important consideration in the decision making process for the GB-CMA is how it engages the community, instead of a community consultation process, per-se (GB-CMA, 2003a). The RCS outlines the GB-CMA's policy of engaging stakeholders, these stakeholders include Water Authorities, Agricultural and Horticultural industries, community groups, Local Government, State Government and environmental groups. Taking this approach has given the GB-CMA a reputation for 'leading the community', particularly in areas where there has been considerable community conflict such as regional drainage and flooding (Cumming et.al., 2004). It is also seen as very successful nationally, attracting annual state and federal funding of $30 million and has won a number of prestigious environmental awards, including the Commonwealth Banksia Award and National River Prize. Some of these awards have been given because the GB-CMA has been successful in achieving multiple outcomes such as restoring biodiversity to wetlands while managing waterlogging and flooding (GB-CMA, 2003b). The success in community leadership as well as the national recognition the CMA has achieved suggests that it is capable of engaging the community through stakeholders to achieve both biodiversity and economic outcomes.
'Implementation Committees' make decisions on policy implementation in the GB-CMA, these committees are appointed from the regional community they represent on the basis of their skill set. Since they are derived from the regional community, the values of the regional community are reflected in the Implementation Committee. It follows that these community values might also be drivers in the decision making process. The concept of 'equity' in particular is important to GB-CMA decision makers (Department of Primary Industries, 2004). This is important for biodiversity policy as government policy that is unacceptable to the decision makers within the GB-CMA is unlikely to be implemented.
What Does This Mean for State and Federal Policy Makers
The key consideration for policy implementation for both the GB-CMA and the Shire of Strathbogie is regional economic development, particularly in agriculture and related industries. This contrasts with state and federal biodiversity policy, whose primary driver is protecting and increasing biodiversity (Department of Sustainability and Environment, 2002; Productivity Commission, 2004). This means that the challenge for new biodiversity policy is to either achieve multiple outcomes or operate alongside regional economic development without impeding it unreasonably. In cases where positive outcomes for economic development and biodiversity cannot be found it may be necessary for government to provide incentives or requirements to protect biodiversity over economic development.
Conclusion
The implications for new biodiversity policy is that for both the GB-CMA and the Shire of Strathbogie biodiversity is important but it is not the most important issue for either organisation. Both organisations are looking to implement policy that leads to economic growth, which may or may not lead to other outcomes such as biodiversity protection. Policy makers must then be skilled at designing policy that delivers both biodiversity and economic outcomes. The differences in success each organisation has had at leading the community should also be taken into account. The GB-CMA has been able to lead the community in the past, and the shire has not been able to show the same success with complex environmental issues. This suggests that the GB-CMA is the most appropriate lead organisation for implementing new biodiversity policy at a regional level.
Achieving multiple outcomes might not always be possible for the local government or the CMAs. In these cases government might have to provide incentives or specific requirements that biodiversity be given priority over economic development. Government must also consider the capacity for leadership in the institutions expected to implement biodiversity policy. New biodiversity policy must also be consistent with community values and priorities or implementation is unlikely to occur successfully.
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