There is increasing recognition of the need to actively involve different stakeholders and communities in the process of making decisions about natural resource management (NRM). Almost every NRM professional is asked to ‘consult' or ‘involve' the community when drawing up management plans for resources such as national parks, native forest and plantation areas, fisheries or mining activities, amongst many others. In some cases, communities actively co-manage natural resources together with NRM professionals.

This course provides a critical review of participatory resource management (PRM) approaches, exploring when and why different PRM processes succeed and fail to resolve conflicts between stakeholders. Students learn both the theories underpinning different PRM approaches, and practical skills such as group facilitation, stakeholder analysis and how to design and manage participatory processes. A series of guest speakers discuss recently implemented Australian and international participatory processes, and the class evaluates the factors that affected the success or otherwise of these processes. Recent research is reviewed to identify how theory and practice is shifting in the rapidly evolving field of PRM. The course assessment is designed to ensure students apply the facilitation skills being taught, and that students can explore topics of particular interest to them in the field of PRM.

The course starts as a block week 13-17 July and continues for 2 hours per week for the first 6 weeks of semester to finish on 28 August. 

Note: Graduate students attend joint classes with undergraduates but are assessed separately

On satisfying the requirements of this course, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

Assessment will be based on a student-negotiated weighting across the following:

• Review paper (critical review of 10 references selected for the final essay using an annotated bibliography) and brief essay plan (10-20%; LO 4)
• Research essay on a given topic or a topic of their own choosing, drawing on PRM theory (35-45%; LO 1, 2, 3, 4)
• Weekly tutorial papers answering a variety of pre-set analytical questions that draw on both lectures and readings (15-25%; LO 1, 2, 3)
• Tutorial facilitation, requiring design and facilitation of one tutorial based on pre-set questions (10-20%; LO 3a)
• Group presentation during initial block week of lectures, as a presentation on PRM approaches/methods and tools (5-10%; LO 1)

Sixty-five hours contact, comprising a 5-day block taught course and two contact hours per week during semester.

Bachelor degree

Buchy, M & Race, D (2001) The twists and turns of community participation in natural resource management in Australia: What is missing? Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 44 (3): 293-308.