Characteristics of Effective Natural Resource Management Partnerships

Oliver PE¹*

1. Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Nambour, Queensland, Australia

In natural resource management a variety of approaches is available to resolve the land, water and biodiversity conflicts that challenge society. This paper focuses on social mobilisation. It presents a synthesis of findings from case study and long-term critical ethnographic research into nineteen landcare, catchment management and other groups in Queensland. Twelve characteristics of effective natural resource management partnerships are identified.

The NRM partnerships investigated were differentiated from other types of relationships by evidence of re-negotiation of power between participants. The literature on citizen participation, power, groups, social capital, social learning, dialogue and collaboration provided a conceptual underpinning for qualitative analysis of data gathered from semi-structured interviews, open-ended questionnaires, workshops, and participant observation undertaken as part of this research.

The twelve characteristics revealed fall into five categories: the context within which the relationship is situated; qualities inherent in the relationship itself; characteristics of the participants, the way the partnership is perceived by those outside the relationship, and whether the relationship may actually be defined as a partnership. These characteristics provide a useful diagnostic checklist for both researchers and practitioners seeking to understand, develop and evaluate natural resource management and other partnership relationships.

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