Dillon, Justin (author), Rickinson, Mark (author), Sanders, Dawn (author), and Teamey, Kelly (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2005
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08794
Notes:
Pages 187-203 in Dillon, Justin, Towards a convergence between science and environmental education: the selected works of Justin Dillon. United States: Routledge, New York City, New York, 2017. 361 pages.
9 pages., via online journal., Cross-property cooperation has the potential to enhance the effectiveness of environmental management actions that cut across property boundaries. Online tools can facilitate this and overcome barriers to landholder engagement in collaborative management. However, collaborative online tools need to be designed and tailored to users' needs and values, and landholder participation in the development process is critical to ensuring uptake and long-term use.
This article presents a case study from the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia, where landholders have been involved in participatory development of a new online collaboration tool. The case study results highlight the significance of issues such as internet access, privacy, technical proficiency and differing stakeholder objectives. A landholder survey identified mapping and the uploading of monitoring data as important functions for the online tool, but these were not rated as highly as functions relating to data security, sharing settings and key term searches. Consequently, we recommend that a future online collaboration tool for the region is not framed specifically as a mapping or citizen science tool, but rather as an adaptive collaboration and communication tool that can incorporate a variety of data types and formats and be modified over time in line with changing landholder needs.
12 pages, Online via UI Library electronic subscription. Open access to full text., This study concluded that the small to medium-sized tree, Vachellia karroo, commonly known as sweet thorn, had a negative impact on farmers' production, and sheep and cattle owners observed the encroachment of it as a form of land degradation. Pastoralists said the use of fire and bush clearing could be used to mitigate encroachment. Authors suggested providing training and demonstrations that can complement farmers' knowledge.
