Toolkits
Community engagement techniques and tools (NSW - iPlan)
Watershed Outreach (US EPA)
The manuals are very comprehensive, easy to read guides on how to work with stakeholders on catchment management. The web-based training module can be skimmed quickly to get a quick reminder of what you need to consider as a you plan a communication program.
- Getting in Step: Engaging and Involving Stakeholders in Your Watershed (pdf)
- Getting In Step: A Guide for Conducting Watershed Outreach Campaigns (pdf)
- Getting in Step: A Guide to Effective Outreach in Your Watershed (Web-based training module)
Citizen science toolkit
A toolkit from the Coastal CRC of over 60 ways in which communities can be involved in decision-making:
"Citizen science is a participatory process for including all sectors of society - general public, government and industry - in the development and conduct of public-interest research in order to bridge the gaps between science and the community and between scientific research and policy, decision-making and planning. Bridging these gaps involves a process of social learning through sound environmental research, full public participation, the adoption of adaptive management practices and the development of democratic values, skills and institutions for an active civil society."
See also:
Tools and Approaches
Watershed Collaboration (pdf)
Policy summary document on the benefits and principles of taking a collaborative approach to catchment management. From a US policy research group. Clear and concise.
Developing a Stormwater Management Plan your Communities, Businesses and Residents will Support
an article from 'Stormwater: the journal for surface water quality professionals'. (US oriented, but generally applicable to Australia)
Five step engagement planning cycle
A guide to designing, organising, implementing and reviewing plans and development assessment programs in NSW. It also includes information on engaging the community (iPlan)
Innovation and Regional Resource Planning
CSIRO programs aimed at co-ordinating and engaging with stakeholders
Social learning frameworks (NZ Landcare)
"if we want people to use information more effectively to help change the way they look at the world - and how they go about managing its resources - then we must pay equal attention to the social aspects of information systems, in particular to ensure that they support learning"
Principled negotiation (Urbanwater.info)
An approach to negotiation which shifts the emphasis (1) to interests (what people and groups actually need and value) rather than positions (what they say they want), and (2) principles by which options may legitimately be chosen.
- Negotiating alignment amongst agencies (Urbanwater.info)
Case Studies
Community Engagement: Stories and Resources (iPlan - NSW)
Directory to examples of best practice.
Bronte catchment: Citizens' Jury - summary case study
Case studies from the CRC for Coastal Zone, Estuary and Waterway Management
Indigenous Communities
Protocols for Indigenous engagement
from the Victorian Catchment Management Council:
Community based resource planning: Aboriginal case study and methodological reflections
Working with indigenous knowledge in natural resource management
Indigenous knowledge and indigenous natural resource management can be overlooked in regional natural resource plans. This is a guide for an inclusive process (Dept of Environment & Heritage)
Indigenous knowledge
"There are many different ways of looking at environments and the interrelationships between humans and their social and biophysical surroundings. The perspective of the Western (or Northern) world is often the dominant one in education. The purpose [here] is to encourage an appreciation of other experiences of environments and human environment relationships through valuing the indigenous knowledge and practices found in our region, and to utilise this awareness to develop strategies for 'rewriting' Western worldviews within environmental education."
