Understanding the motivations, needs and capacities of landholders, land managers and other stakeholders is essential for successful management or rehabilitation of natural resources.

Capacity building for natural resource management

It is also important to understand the socio-economic impacts that natural resource management policies might have on resource dependent communities.

The Environmental Social Science group of the Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management provides knowledge and advice for understanding the interactions between people and natural resources. In particular, the group can provide extensive knowledge in the areas of human, social, cultural, and institutional capacity and provide advice in capacity building for natural resource management.

The group can also undertake spatial socio-economic analysis to build geographic profiles of community capacity at a variety of scales - for example, local or regional.

Expertise and resources 

The group has expertise in the following areas:

• Sustainability assessments/surveys and strategies
• Regional and community surveys
• Social impact assessments
• Socio-economic and socio-demographic profiling
• Community and stakeholder consultation (including cross-cultural consultation)
• Environmental valuation (such as contingent valuation)
• Futures and scenario planning
• Designing and facilitating education and training programs

Successful natural resource management arises from creative partnerships between all relevant stakeholders.

The Environmental Social Science group uses the latest, innovative community engagement techniques and tools to consult and empower stakeholders to successfully address the challenges that "best practice" natural resource management demands.

For further information on this research, please contact Dr Colin MacGregor