The History of NRM in South Australia

The South Australian portion of the Murray-Darling Basin has traditionally been well served by community groups, government agencies and regional boards who have all worked tirelessly to ensure the long term future of our natural resources.

The separate management of issues relating to water, pest plant and animal, and soils has previously been undertaken in the region by 28 individual boards.

The Government of South Australia has however, acknowledged that a new system of management is required to protect our precious natural resources into the future and passed through Parliament in July 2004, the Natural Resources Management (NRM) Act 2004.

The NRM Act unites the Animal and Plant Control Act 1986, the Soil Conservation and Landcare Act 1989 and the Water Resources Act 1997.

The passing of the Act signalled not only the start of a new management structure to provide for the effective delivery of natural resources management within the State, but also a vehicle for the implementation of Natural Heritage Trust (NHT), National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP) and the National Landcare Program (NLP) funding initiatives.

Once the Act was passed, a Natural Resources Management Council was appointed and along with it eight new Natural Resources Management Boards have been created in South Australia, the South Australian Murray Darling Basin Natural Resources Management Board being one of them.

The South Australian Murray Darling Basin Natural Resources Management Board is a union of the following organisations:

River Murray Catchment Water Management Board

SA MDB Integrated Natural Resources Management Group

Animal and Plant Control Boards	Soil Conservation Boards
Barossa Ranges Coorong Fleurieu Goyder Lacepede-Tatiara Loxton Waikerie Mid Murray Mount Lofty Ranges Murray Bridge Murraylands Northern Riverland Southern Mallee Upper North	Central Flinders Central Hills Coorong Eastern Districts Hummocks Lacepede-Tatiara - Robe Lower North Murray Mallee Murray Plains Northern Hills Southern Hills West Broughton

To ensure a smooth transition from the previous structural arrangements to the new arrangements, the organisations listed above will continue to operate until their term of appointment expires. Soil Board appointments expired on 31 October 2005 and the transfer of business from the existing Boards to the NRM Board is expect to occur in early 2006. The South Australian Murray Darling Basin Natural Resources Management Board has provided delegation and directions to the existing Boards to enable them to undertake business as usual until the new arrangements are in place.

Established under the NRM Act 2004 is the NRM Council, the peak advisory body to the Minister on NRM issues and policies. Members are drawn from the SA Farmers' Federation, the Conservation Council of SA, the Local Government Association, Indigenous groups and the broader community. They are appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Minister.

Similarly, membership of the SA MDB NRM Board is made on the recommendation of the Minister. Each board member has a responsibility to the community to ensure that they are consulted in relation to the development of the NRM Plan.

Regional NRM Boards are skills based bodies with responsibilities that include consulting with their communities to develop regional NRM plans that sustain their local environments.

The regional NRM boards have direct access to the Minister – they do not report through the NRM Council. They are therefore a strong link between local communities and decision making at the highest level.

The SA MDB NRM Board reports directly to the Minister for the River Murray.

Regional NRM boards can form geographically-based groups to perform work in their area and may also convene advisory committees to provide expert decision making.

In the SA MDB region, four Groups have been formally gazetted and are called:

Riverland, Rangelands, Mallee and Coorong, and Ranges to River.

Natural Resources Management (NRM) is a framework to assist us to look after the environment so there's a balance between caring for our land, water, plants and animals and the needs of farmers and landowners.

NRM is about people in regional South Australia and the cities, working in their local areas on projects to maintain and improve their own environments. It also means encouraging and assisting farmers and other primary producers to make better use of our precious land and water resources – towards sustainable agriculture.

In fact the Landcare movement – along with its Coastcare, Bushcare and Rivercare initiatives – is an excellent example of how the community delivers natural resource management. It's been said that Landcare is the user-friendly word for Natural Resources Management.<

So when we're talking about NRM we're talking about controlling weeds, animal pests such as foxes and rabbits, soil conservation, salinity control, biodiversity enhancement and the management of water resources.

SAMDBNRM Board Brochure - PDF (901Kb)