Back to the Future? Planning for environmental outcomes and the new Caring for our Country program

Abstract

The Australian government Caring for our Country (CfoC) program, first announced in 2008, has sought to build on and enhance previous experience with Australian natural resource management policy. This paper critically examines the initial design, planned delivery, and first round of competitive funding outcomes of the new program. This analysis shows that the initial design and delivery of the CfoC model was ad hoc, politicised, and lacking in transparency. The paper concludes that a more systematic and transparent approach for achieving sustainable environmental outcomes is required in order for this new program to achieve its intended objectives. These implications are of interest to Australian and international geographers, natural resource planners, scientists and policy makers concerned with the design, delivery and outcomes of large natural resource and environmental management programs.

Keywords:

• Natural resource management
• agri-environment policy
• environmental planning
• program evaluation

Acknowledgements

The authors of this paper are members of the Environmental and Social Planning Research Group in the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management at The University of Queensland.