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Australia's Coastcare Program (1995–2002): its Purpose, Components and Outcomes
Author(s) -
CLARKE BEVERLEY
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
geographical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.695
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-5871
pISSN - 1745-5863
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-5871.2006.00391.x
Subject(s) - stewardship (theology) , government (linguistics) , agency (philosophy) , general partnership , function (biology) , natural resource , commonwealth , political science , hindsight bias , public relations , documentation , environmental resource management , public administration , business , sociology , psychology , social science , computer science , economics , philosophy , linguistics , evolutionary biology , politics , law , cognitive psychology , biology , programming language
Coastcare, Australia's community‐based coastal stewardship program, ran in its original form between 1995 and 2002 underpinned by the principles of integrated coastal management. Internationally, there are very few similar enterprises. Coastcare differed in fundamental ways from other Australian natural resource stewardship programs such as Landcare and Bushcare. However, there is very little published information about the program: its activities, characteristics or achievements. The results presented in this paper are based upon analysis of descriptive statistics from two key sources: the data set of the central coordinating agency for Coastcare (the national environment agency of that time), and a questionnaire administered to State level staff of the program. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the original program including a discussion of its practice, outcomes and limitations in terms of lack of formal evaluation. The paper expands the image of Coastcare beyond that of a grants program by explaining its broader roles in terms of education and partnership development between tiers of government and the community. Coastcare, in its original form, ceased to function in 2003 as a consequence of a remodeling of the funding strategy through the Commonwealth Government's Natural Heritage Trust. It is concluded that there is some urgency in broadcasting Coastcare's past function and fate because a new program has emerged from the old with little application of hindsight to guide better future performance.