CREATING CROSS-SCALE LINKAGES BETWEEN REGIONAL AND PROPERTY LEVELS: Toward Coordinated Natural Resource Management Decisions in Australias Tropical Rangelands

Natural resource use and management occur over diverse temporal and spatial scales through the decisions and activities of institutions and individuals that are operating at a number of levels including international, national, state, regional and local. Collectively, these decisions and activities shape the landscape and influence the sustainability of natural resources. Within Australia, regional level planning approaches have become a prominent focus for implementing regional and higher level policies related to natural resource management. However, implementation is highly dependent upon the decisions of many individual property managers operating across the landscape, whose focus may or may not be completely in accordance with the regional plan. The coordination of property level decisions is thus a key element for the sustainability of large scale ecological systems managed under regional institutional arrangements. This research focuses on natural resource management within Australias tropical rangelands. It examines how linkages between regional planning and property level decisions can be improved to support the sustainable use and management of natural resources across these scales. The research combines case study inquiry and soft systems analysis to provide an interdisciplinary investigation of cross-scale linkages. Case studies were conducted at two scales within the northern Gulf region in northern Queensland. One major case study focused on the regional level natural resource planning and management of the northern Gulf. Eight smaller case studies on property level natural resource management in the northern Gulf were conducted to represent the property scale. The case studies build a detailed picture of the goals, actions and motivators for natural resource decisions at each scale and the interactions between these factors and scales. The two scales of case studies were used to conduct a comparative, systems-based analysis of natural resource management decision-making between the regional and property scales. The purpose of these analyses was to show potential opportunities and barriers for enhancing cross-scale links between the regional and property levels. The findings show that major issues currently limiting cross-scale linkages and interactions within the northern Gulf region are inadequate information exchange between and within levels; limited capacity of individuals and institutions to adapt to change; limited trust, rapport and reciprocity between and within levels; the complexity of ecological systems; and conflicting actions between and within levels. Five corresponding opportunities are identified where there is potential to enhance the linkages between regional and property decisions for natural resource management. These opportunities are coordination mechanisms, connection of regional and property planning, mapping of system components, collaborative learning and participation, and flexibility in decisions. Change is a central element of all of the major opportunities identified for improving crossscale linkages. The ability of institutions to adapt constantly to the changes occurring across scales within both human and ecological systems will strongly influence the future sustainability of Australias natural resources