Community catch-up 2 (October 2008)

Welcome to Community catch-up

Welcome to the new format e-newsletter of the CRC for Forestry’s Communities Project, which has been designed for busy people.

The Communities Project examines the social dimensions of Australia's forest industries, to help ensure our forest and plantation management is socially as well as environmentally sustainable.  We have recently released reports providing a guide to community engagement in forestry, and detailing the employment and spending generated by the forest industry in Tasmania, and we are currently analysing results of surveys asking about people’s perceptions of plantation forestry, sent to 6000 people in Western Australia and Tasmania.  We will be undertaking a series of public and industry seminars to present our research results in Western Australia and Tasmania in late 2008 and early 2009.  [read more]

Socio-economic costs and benefits of commercial forestry

Who is undertaking the research?

The Australian National University

 Researchers and research students: Dr Jacki Schirmer, Peter Lezaich, Alex Campbell-Wilson and Edwina Loxton

Socio-economic costs and benefits of commercial forestry is a subproject (4.3.1) undertaken by the Australian National University. The subproject focuses in particular on plantation forestry.  The research is being undertaken in Tasmania and Western Australia, and consists of the following related studies:

• The Tasmanian Forest Industry Survey, a biennial survey of the forest industries of Tasmania and Western Australia, and
• Socio-economic impacts of forestry – statistical analysis, a study in which the links between the forest industry and socio-economic change in local regions of Tasmania and Western Australia are examined [read more]

Contact details for further information:

Dr Jacki Schirmer

Australian National University

Email: jacki.schirmer@anu.edu.au

Community attitudes towards plantation forestry

Media reports and past research have made it clear that many people have strong views on plantation forestry, both positive and negative.  Little is known about the factors that shape these views on plantations, so this project aims to provide a detailed understanding of the public attitudes towards plantation forestry. [read more]

Making sense of the Communities' project research: PhD project

The Communities project is also focused on helping people get the most value out of the research.  Social research is relatively new in forestry and it isn’t always clear how and where this research will add value.   The project will develop a better understanding of how people get practical value out of research by working together. [read more]

Community engagement in Australian forestry management (Subproject 4.3.3)

Over the past two years, research has been conducted examining the community engagement (CE) processes used by the Australia plantation management sector.  Using qualitative research methods including workshops and interviews with industry representatives, community members and local governments, a broad picture of the effectiveness of the CE methods currently being used has been identified. [read more]

Participatory modelling of forested landscapes - A case study in the Upper Clarence catchment of northern New South Wales (Subproject 4.3.4)

The project based at Southern Cross University is looking at evaluating the effectiveness of participatory modelling as a community engagement tool in addressing natural resource issues.  There are two stages to the project.

Stage one involved a scoping survey and interviews with key informants from various stakeholder groups, which identified major natural resource management issues in relation to plantation forestry expansion and some broader related issues. 

Stage two will involve participatory modelling for collaboratively exploring the major issues indentified in Stage one by the participants. [read more]

Workshop: Working with local people