A New Natural Resources Management Plan for the SA Murray-Darling Basin – Have your say!
The South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resources Management Board is seeking community involvement in developing the region’s new Natural Resources Management plan.
The plan aims to bring together all aspects of caring for our Natural Resources (our land, water, biodiversity, atmosphere and our people) including ways to respond to major threats like climate change and the influence of social and economic issues facing the region.
You can have your say about what’s important for caring for our Natural Resources by downloading a feedback form and returning it to the Board by the 31st of July 2008.
NRM Feedback Form (584kb)
Simply email your form to phil.mcnamara@samdbnrm.sa.gov.au or send it to:
Regional NRM Plan
SA MDB NRM Board
PO Box 2343
Murray Bridge SA 5253
Engagement Strategy
The Regional NRM Plan is a plan for the whole region which means that the Plan needs to encompass all stakeholders in its development and, ultimately, its implementation.
The Board has developed an Engagement Strategy for development of the Regional NRM Plan to ensure that all partners in natural resources management are involved and contribute to its development.
Engagement Strategy (164kb)
Concept Statement
The preparation of the Concept Statement is the first stage in the preparation of the Regional NRM Plan. The Concept Statement outlines the Board’s intentions for the new plan, both in terms of its content and the process the Board intends to use to prepare the Plan.
Concept Statement (801kb)
Strategic Framework
The Board has developed a Strategic Framework that outlines the vision, guiding principles, goals, key natural resource assets and threats to the Region. The aim of the framework is to set the direction for further development of the Regional NRM Plan.
The Strategic Framework will be used throughout the development of the Regional NRM Plan to ensure that all activities and investments are leading towards achieving the regional goals, and ultimately the vision.
Strategic Framework (668kb)
Environmental Values and Prioritisation
It has been recognised that the next step after developing the Strategic Framework for the Regional NRM Plan is to determine the key Environmental Values of the SA Murray-Darling Basin community, based on the natural resource assets. Environmental Values are the ways in which the environment is used for human activity (e.g. farming, recreation) and the value placed on those activities by the community.
For this project, the Board is collaborating with the CSIRO for their knowledge and previous work undertaken within the region and the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) as the outcomes will provide direct input into the National Water Quality Management Strategy (NWQMS) for the region.
Once the Environmental Values have been determined, they will be utilised in conjunction with current scientific knowledge and other relevant research to determine the regional priorities for natural resource activities. While Board members, NRM Group members and staff have experience and expertise in these issues and solutions and would participate in the prioritisation process, there is a need for the Board to remain fully independent and impartial to ensure accountability.
While background work has already occurred, this project will commence in September 2007 and is anticipated to be finalised in July 2008.
State of the Region
The Board reports progress towards long term regional Resource Condition Targets (RCTs) annually to the Australian Government. The decision making process to inform regional reporting is reviewed and adapted to ensure reporting uses the best available information and is meaningful. The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) team is now expanding on the reporting decision making process by formally involving key personnel from agencies to enhance data and information capture, as well as enhancing relationships between the Board and agencies and reporting synergies.
The M&E team aim to engage agency representatives with a broad knowledge of their respective agency contribution towards managing the Natural Resource Assets in the region in terms of:
- Management activities and the progress of these activities
- Relevant plans, policies and strategies, and
- The state or condition of a given asset (Note: state or condition is interpreted as knowledge of qualitative and quantitative data or information at the broad scale).
A small group will be formed for each Natural Resource Asset to expand on the State of Region report developed by Board staff, to capture further data and information (qualitative or quantitative), and discuss/decide broad condition ratings for the long term Resource Condition Targets relevant for each Natural Resource Asset.