The renewal of the North East RCS has been led by the North East CMA, in partnership with Traditional Owners/First Nations Peoples, regional NRM agencies and Landcare.
We have used resilience thinking, where the interactions between people and the environment are considered, to guide the RCS renewal.
For this strategy, resilience is defined as the ability of the people and environment in north east Victoria to cope with change, while continuing to function in a desired way. Resilience thinking helps to understand and manage dynamic systems such as regions or catchments. The resilience principles and design criteria that guided the strategy renewal can be found in the addendum.
The exploration and questions described in the image below have guided the research and engagement associated with the RCS renewal. This development process has enabled key priorities for NRM to be identified for the region, in the form of outcomes and priority directions. Further detail on the participation approaches used can be found in the section below.
Participation
The RCS is not a strategy for any single agency, it has been developed collaboratively with Traditional Owners/First Nations Peoples, community, Landcare and other government agencies. The image and the sections below outline the participation and engagement approach used in the RCS renewal.
Project Steering Committee
A Project Steering Committee (PSC) has overseen the renewal of the North East RCS. The PSC comprised representatives from the following groups:
- Taungurung Land and Waters Council
- Yorta Yorta Nations Aboriginal Corporation
- Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation
- Duduroa Dhargal Aboriginal Corporation
- Jaithmathang Traditional Ancestral Bloodline Original Owners (TABOO)
- Landcare
- Trust for Nature
- Department of Environment, Land Water and Planning (Hume region)
- Agriculture Victoria
- North East Water
- Goulburn Murray Water
- North East Catchment Management Authority.
The PSC has met monthly during the renewal process (July 2020 – July 2021).
Traditional Owners/First Nations Peoples participation
In addition to involving the PSC members in developing the RCS, we have:
- Invited Traditional Owners/First Nations groups to describe their connection to Country in the Insights Paper, in their words and pictures
- Worked one-on-one with representatives from Traditional Owners/First Nations Peoples, to ensure that key components from Country Plans are included as directed by the Traditional Owners/First Nations groups
- Facilitated input and review into both the Insights Paper and the draft RCS prior to release for comment to ensure each Traditional Owners/First Nations groups’ content and aspirations are included. This process was repeated prior to the release of the final North East RCS.
The RCS recognises the unique relationships that Traditional Owners/First Nations Peoples have with land, water and biodiversity and the right to self determination to heal, manage and govern country.
Traditional Owners/First Nations Peoples rights to participation and decision making in natural resource management strategies is an important step in reconciliation, the RCS upholds this right and embeds the principals of self determination into the development of the RCS.
