Executive Summary:Currently in Australia, natural resource management (NRM) devolves planning and implementation to the regional level, away from direct control by State and Federal government agencies.This places great emphasis on community and volunteer activity, providing many challenges including: meeting the need for capacity building and community decision making; modifying the relationship between government and community, and between government and community themselves, and; managing undermanning and volunteer burnout problems in the volunteer community.There is a strong need to establish a long term vision of values and goals for natural resource management in order to address these short term challenges.Particular areas requiring consideration are the desired role of democracy in regional NRM, the development of a common model of public administration (incorporating both public service and voluntary non-profit approaches), and the long term role and viability of volunteerism in NRM.The three-year research project Volunteerism, Democracy, Administration and the Evolution of Future Landscapes aimed to explore these fundamental issues. The principal intent was to provide alternative modes of governance, administration and NRM implementation to ensure long term and effective landscape manaement in Australia, and to develop evaluative mechanisms towards this end.The project was funded by Land and Water Australia, one of Australia's leading Research and Development Corporations.Three distinct phases of research were conducted between 2004 and 2006.These comprised: examination of issues in regional NRM and volunteerism across Australia; realisation of current and future options for volunteerism and NRM through a causal layered analysis (CLA) methodology; and, the development of alternative futures for improved resilience and efficiency in volunteerism and NRM, resulting in a series of recommendations and an evaluation checklist for the future.The first phase of research involved discussions nationally with organisations and volunteers in both NRM and not-for-profit agencies in other spheres.A number of consistent themes were evident when considering democratic, administrative and volunteerism issues and trends, currently and likely to eventuate over the next thirty years.These could be grouped under the three general categories of 'implementation', 'resources' and 'culture'.From this data, workshops to explore volunteerism issues specific to natural resources management were conducted in two, somewhat contrasting, case analysis methodology was used to critique current perspectives and practices in NRM at several levels in order to open up 'transformative spaces for the creation of alternative futures' (Inayatullah, 2004, p. 1).From these workshops emerged consistent key drivers and themes for volunteerism in NRM for both challenges and opportunitites.These reinforced and expanded on data gained from the scoping phase of the research and included: clarifying, building and consolidating partnerships; institutionalised fundingand support; community capacity and empowerment; changing values; education and awareness raising; promotion of NRM and volunteerism; and, the evolution of NRM.Using this data and utilising CLA methodology, four, quite divergent future scenarios for volunteerism in NRM were developed.In the final phase of the research input was gained from a range of international and national experts about these scenarios, with specific consideration of issues such as likelihood, implications, and future planning needs.Particular attention was given to both volunteerism and to NRM, both as sectors in themselves and with respect to their interrelated natures.Data from this phase of research reflected, consolidated and expanded upon the issues and themes that had consistently emerged throughout the course of the research.Major topics included: regional empowerment, ownership and authority; 'devolvement with encouragement and support'; strong, clear, long term and adaptive governance; collective vision, responsibility and action; the integral nature of volunteerism, despite changing lifesytles, landscapes and pressures; the need for conscious understanding of and attention to volunteerims (covering topics such as volunteer responsiblity, the diversity of volunteers and volunteer activities, formal support and facilitation of volunteerism, volunteer rights, welfare and responsibilities, equality of opportunity, changing roles and relationshipsin volunteerism, and volunteer contribution to social capacity and resilience); the importance of citizen involvment in planning and problem solving, and of equity, representativeness and inclusiveness in this process; social change, resilience and adaptiveness; and, embedding a sustainability and volunteerism ethic and commitment in all levels and sectors of society.The final research outcome is a series of recommendations for NRM systems that can be taken now and in the long term to address the future emerging issues.These recommendations cover all aspects of volunteerism in NRM, as identified throughout the course of the research.They are complemented by a checklist evaluation tool that can be used in an ongoing way to both guide and monitor progress in this area.These types of mechanisms provide an important way of ensuring the resilience, effectiveness and efficiency of volunteer contributions in NRM for strategic planning, implementation and adaptive learning.This is vital to maximise the value of volunteers in the management of our natural resourcces into the long term future in the midst of significant change, challenges and new opportunities.
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