Land Stewardship: Unearthing the Perspectives of Land Managers

摘要

Australian government and non-government agencies have begun to recognise that the action required to address environmental degradation cannot be considered to be the responsibility of landholders alone, and that some form of encouragement to undertake work in the public interest is required. This article outlines social research, undertaken as part of the Victorian Land Stewardship Project, that explored the key issues that institutional and private land managers regard as influencing resource use decisions by farmers and other landholders, and the types of strategies that may facilitate the adoption of activities which provide ecosystem services. The focus of this article is on the methodological aspects of the social research, notably the combination of landholder participation, sequential small group sessions, and the use of a futures methodology.