Sustaining local values through river basin governance: community-based initiatives in Australia's Murray–Darling basin

Abstract

Australia's Murray–Darling basin (MDB) water plan is an ambitious attempt to balance ecological, social and economic benefits, where a key aspect of the reform process has been recovery of water for environmental use. This paper focuses on a set of initiatives established by a local non-governmental organisation and an Indigenous community designed to engage with local values and priorities and incorporate them into this complex river basin governance system. Contrary to expectations that local and basin-scale interests and outcomes will diverge, the case studies reveal the ability for local groups to collaboratively manage both land and water resources to achieve locally important outcomes, and contribute to basin-scale outcomes. The analysis also highlights a progressive style of community-based environmental management for water management that utilises multiple institutional arrangements and planning pathways to protect the values that are important to local communities, and to nest those values within the broader effort to sustainably manage the basin's water resources.

Keywords:

• values
• local action
• monitoring and evaluation
• integrated water planning and management

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the CSIRO Land and Water Flagship and Payne Scott award. The Yorta Yorta case study was part of an MDBA-commissioned report that examined the effects of changes in water availability on the Indigenous people of the Murray–Darling Basin. The authors would like to acknowledge the generosity of the participants in terms of the insights they offered and the time they spent with us. We would also like to acknowledge the collegial internal review process. The views expressed and interpretations of notes made during interviews are strictly those of the authors.