Designing training and education activities for the Border Rivers-Gwydir Catchment Management Authority to improve on-ground activities by landholders

Abstract

The intention of the Border Rivers-Gwydir Catchment Management Authority (BR-G CMA), like many other regional organisations around Australia, is to provide a Training and Education program (TEP) that through its activities increases engagement of the community in "translating ideas into actions on-the-ground" (BR-G CMA 2007). The BR-G CMA believe by building communities' capacity through education and awareness raising, knowledge and skill building they would have "equipped community members to make their own decisions on natural resource management" (BR-G CMA 2007) that will lead to both private and public benefits through improved natural resource management. Monitoring and evaluating the success of the TEP in leading to behavioural change in landholders, such as stated in the Catchment Action Plan "by 201 5 through education and awareness programs, 500 landholders adopt contracts ... for on ground work" (BR-G CMA 2007, P 50) is often difficult to assess. Training and education events (TEEs) are typically one-off events, sometimes undertaken in multiple localities, with evaluation surveys focusing on the organisation and delivery of the TEE, and rarely on how much influence the TEE could have on improved natural resource management, and certainly no tracking of participants to assess if there have been longer-term impacts on their land management from participation in the TEE. The research brief from the BR-G CMA was to evaluate 4 TEEs undertaken over 2008-09, and to provide recommendations on: 1. future design of education and training activities to increase likelihood of behavioural objectives being achieved; 2. future evaluation procedures of education and training activities in order to be able to assess both immediate and long-term impacts to landholder behaviour; 3. future methodology for assessing the longer term outcomes (flow-on effects) of education and training activities, sometime after completion. Due to the condensed nature of this paper we will present the overall outcome of the TEEs evaluated, with a particular focus on where improvements need to occur and what the critical roles and responsibilities are within the organisation that need to change if TEEs are going to positively influence natural resource management behaviour of the community.