Integrated resource management and the Hunter Valley conservation trust, NSW, Australia

Abstract In Australia, integrated resource or catchment management involves the coordinated use and management of land, water, vegetation and other natural resources in the context of a river basin. During 1987, the New South Wales government introduced integrated catchment management as State policy. The Hunter Valley Conservation Trust had been established in 1950 to address problems of flooding and land degradation in the Hunter Valley. Its activities and performance are evaluated relative to integrated resource management, focusing upon context, legitimation, functions, structures, processes and mechanisms, as well as organizational culture and participant attitudes. The Hunter Valley Conservation Trust has been successful in reducing flood damage and ameliorating land degradation. However, it has not effectively integrated water and land management in the context of the drainage basin. It is recommended that the Trust be restructured and given the status of a lead agency through legislation with regard to catchment management, while local government should be responsible for urban drainage and maintenance of existing flood mitigation and stream management works. The Trust should continue to levy catchment management charges on the ratepayers in the valley via local government. Middle-level management should become the key area in which integration of interests and programmes among various agencies, organizations and individuals is pursued.