This study addresses the central problem of how the behaviour of individuals may be co-ordinated to manage collective natural resources, and in particular, to what degree this can be achieved through voluntary, community based means under a free market policy regime. This question was explored by researching how local groups known as Landcare, or Care groups, are managing waterways in Waikato, New Zealand, and specifically by examining their effectiveness in controlling non-point source contaminants to water originating from agricultural land.An action research approach was used to investigate research questions regarding what motivates actors to support activity to enhance water quality, the effectiveness of such activity in addressing non-point source discharges to water, and the equity issues which are associated with environmental management through Landcare. This study suggests that neo-liberal philosophies of governance, while favouring voluntary resource management, disregard the conditions which, in practice, underpin effective and equitable examples of this type of activity. A call is therefore made for a more active role for government, in directly supporting local action, in compensating for the impacts of free-market policies on natural resource use, and in facilitating the representation of the diversity of views in environmental management. Action research, participatory planning, and other learning based and communicative processes could be usefully employed to guide and inform such interventions / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/182056 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Ritchie, Helen, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, Faculty of Environmental Management and Agriculture |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Source | THESIS_FEMA_ARD_Ritchie_H.xml |
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