Assessing Community Capacity for Riparian Restoration

1. Assessing Community Capacity for Riparian Restoration Key Messages National Riparian Lands Research & Development Program

2. Overview of Presentation • Overview of the Research Project • What is ‘capacity’ • Rethinking capacity • What capacity means in practice • Overview of a ‘capacity assessment tool’

3. The Research Project Aim: to identify the critical success and failure issues affecting community participation in riparian restoration. Qualitative research based on the experiences of 5 regions involved in ‘demonstration & evaluation projects’ May 2002 - June 2003

4. Method • 5 case-studies visited around Australia • On-site discussions with landholders, managers,etc.. • Focus groups • Feedback from a national ‘capacity’ workshop • Feedback on a ‘draft capacity assessment tool'

5. What is ‘capacity’? Source: Cocklin et al 2001:106 “An ability to act towards a shared vision”

6. A linear approach… 1. Set a target or goal 2. Assume others share this goal 3. Identify ‘barriers’ to getting there 4. Educate or train people and/or provide assistance, to overcome ‘barriers’ (‘Capacity Building’) 5. Hope for broader adoption By this time the target has often shifted because the context has changed…

7. A process-oriented approach to ‘capacity’ Positive Outcomes CONDITION of DIMENSIONS of Capacity TIME Negative Outcomes • Different frequencies and intensities of PROCESSES: • social and human capital • drought, flood • - boom-bust economic cycles

8. Rethinking capacity • Social, economic and biophysical components • Complex, time and space dependent

9. A ‘new’ definition of capacity • the capability of individuals, groups and institutions to understand and respond to the enabling and constraining elements, dimensions and issues that drive the process of capital accumulation and decline (in all its forms) toproduce desirable outcomes.

10. A ‘new’ definition of capacity • Key principles that underpin this definition: • Participation & engagement • Adaptive management • learn, • understand, • respond appropriately • Acknowledge existing capacity: • “Capacity enhancement”

11. What does capacity mean in practice?

12. Results of our research • 35 ‘dimensions’ of capacity identified • at individual, community and institutional levels • Each dimension can have a positive (enabling) and negative (constraining) influence • The dimensions remained similar across Australia • but each region responded differently • Responses are time- and place-dependent

13. Johnstone River Catchment

14. Mary River Catchment

15. Goulburn-Broken Catchment

16. Blackwood Catchment

17. Far South Coast

18. Context Economic conditions Community support Awareness of water quality/quantity issues Climatic events Community networks Community negotiation structures Cost of works Values and Perceptions Values Shared vision ‘Extension’ skills Awareness Open mindedness Perceptions of solutions Ownership of problems and solutions Key dimensions of capacity

19. Communications and empowerment Data availability Communications – targeting Communications – mechanisms Consistency of communications Cooperation Empowerment Inclusiveness Program design Roles and responsibilities, Financial security Program consistency Institutional consistency Flexibility Forward planning Transparency Key dimensions of capacity

20. Program delivery Decision-making Consistency of key people Personality of key people Skills and experience of key people Community ‘champions’ Monitoring and evaluation Institutional capacity Key dimensions of capacity

21. Results of our research… • Limitations on one dimension are overcome by investing in that dimension, or making compensatory investments in other dimensions • This is not often done explicitly • We need a better understanding of how the underlying processes interact to produce different outcomes

22. Implications • Due to the diversity within and between regions, there is no single approach to ‘capacity building’ • In designing policies and programs, we need to understand: • the ‘most important’ dimensions of ‘capacity’ in the region, at the moment • How the dimensions/processes interact • How the processes can be influenced to achieve desired outcomes

23. A ‘Capacity Assessment Tool’ Helping people think through and monitor ‘capacity’

24. A ‘Capacity Assessment Tool’ • Background • to enable various analyses, over time, place, stakeholders • Assessment • 5 themes, 7 dimensions • Importance weighting (for region) • Project life-stage importance weighting • Priority setting (optional) • Results • Implications report

25. Background

26. Navigation

27. Assessment

28. Summary Results

29. Full Results

30. Implications Report

31. Weighting - Importance, Life-stage,

32. Priority Setting

33. Using the tool Assessment tool not a measurement toolIt is the process of working through the tool that is important, the results or outputs of the tool should really only be seen as record of the process

34. How can it be used • Checklist of issues in relation to capacity • Reporting change over time • Diagnostic tool (strengths and weaknesses) • Participatory research and decision making

35. Further Information: RipRap Edition 24 – Building capacity for river and riparian restoration hard copy or www.rivers.gov.au Assessing community capacity to undertake riparian restoration: tool & discussion paper www.rivers.gov.au/