Achieving organisational learning in natural resource management

Abstract

The reality of public sector natural resource management (NRM) agencies today is one of progressively tightening budgets (Mcllroy 2017) and simultaneous requirements to be more effective, efficient and innovative. Technological innovations are providing some useful, but not standalone, solutions to environmental challenges (e.g. Hamilton 2013; Westley et al. 2011). To garner long-term improvement in environmental management, agencies must also focus on the human dimensions (Berkes 2017; Crona and Hubacek 2010; Folke et al. 2005; Pahl-Wostl 2007). Institutional landscapes and the people who work within them must receive as much attention as the social-ecological systems they seek to manage (Olsson et al. 2004). As other chapters in this book have advocated, people working in NRM need to be collaborative, creative and innovative in their approaches if they are to move towards resilience and sustainability. In essence, what agencies need to do is become learning organisations.