Communication resources
Leader: Dr Peter Jacklyn, Communication Coordinator,
TS–CRC
Full title: Communication resources for the tropical
savannas
Project 4.3.1
Summary | Approach and methods | Importance of CRC network | Communication values | Adaptive
communication | Objectives | Outcomes | Outputs |
Project team |
The Communication project provides resources that enhance the
effectiveness of communication:
- between partner agency staff and others involved in the
Centre’s activities (for example by providing an email
newsletter, staff websites and assistance with workshops);
- between the Centre and its key stakeholders involved in the
management and use of the tropical savannas (for example by
providing a stakeholder newsletter, plain-English publications,
bibliographies and mapping tools) and
- between the Centre and the broader community (for example by
providing promotional and display material and media
releases).
The project is run by staff employed directly by the Centre,
rather than by staff affiliated with a partner agency.
The TS–CRC is most effective when it adds value to the
activities of its partner agencies in achieving its mission i.e.
when it operates across jurisdictions, research disciplines, and
stakeholder sectors in a research role that individual partner
agencies would find difficult to accomplish on their own.
It not only publicises the collaborative research findings of
the Centre, but also sources and makes available information
resources such as maps, mapping tools, bibliographies, websites,
and integrating publications that allow researchers, land managers
and land users to look beyond their particular discipline, sector
or jurisdiction and work with and learn from other savanna
stakeholders.
The CRC program is designed to bridge the gap between the
culture of research and the culture of research users so that
Australian research can be used more effectively in ways that
benefit the whole community. In the case of the TS–CRC, the
gap between the culture of land-management research and the culture
of the users of that research can be enormous. An urban-based
researcher, for example, will tend to look at landscapes and value
landscapes in very different ways to a remotely-based pastoralist.
And both groups will do this in different ways to an Aboriginal
land manager—to take just three of the groups involved in
land management of the tropical savannas.
The TS–CRC has worked towards better cooperation between
these groups by forging links across research disciplines,
stakeholder sectors and jurisdictions. Experience has shown that
such a task requires good relationships between individuals that
can bridge these cultural divides (see Arnott et al. 2001—see
Publication and PDF link below), and the TS–CRC has been
effective in building a network of good relationships across the
tropical savannas.
This network gives a diverse range of researchers, land managers
and users ongoing face-to-face relationships, and allows them to
work on common tasks such as research projects. This network
spreads out beyond the people directly involved with the
Centre’s activities to those researchers, land managers and
land users who have working and learning relationships with those
people who are directly involved.
As far as we can tell, however, this relationships network is
still dominated by researchers and agency staff; many associated
with biophysical research. The TS–CRC needs to extend this
network to a broader range of researchers, to include more
socio-economic researchers for example, and to include more land
managers and users. In this way the network can better act as a
catalyst for more sustainable land management practices across the
tropical savannas.
An important part of the Communication project is the values
that support the growth of this relationship network.
The tropical savannas are important. A diverse range of
people is attracted to the Centre’s network because of a
common interest in, and value for, the tropical savannas. By having
the tropical savannas as a focus in our publications and other
communication resources, the Centre offers a resource to this group
that is not found in other agencies.
Different knowledge systems can be equally valid. By
treating different knowledge systems as equally valid and worthy of
respect, each with different strengths, the Centre is able to
attract a diverse range of people to its network. This is
particularly important in the tropical savannas where the major
land managers—pastoralists and Aboriginal people—may
have different values to researchers, but still possess extensive
knowledge. Importantly we should not assume that all such knowledge
should be accessible, but respect that some of it should not be
made available.
Promotion should not take precedence over usefulness. The
tropical Savannas are characterised by a general lack of
land-management information compared to other parts of the country.
As much of this information is produced outside of the
Centre’s core activities, the Centre’s communication
has a useful role informing people about the activities of other
groups in the savannas in the interests of sustainable conservation
and use. This role should not be sacrificed for the sake of
self-promotion of the Centre.
Public relations and awareness raising. Beyond those
people who are interested in tropical savannas and sympathetic to
the goals of the Centre, we need to raise awareness of the Centre
and tropical savannas in the broader community. The people who make
decisions about savanna management are often politicians who will
be influenced by the attitudes and opinions of their electors, most
of whom live in urban areas. If we can start to increase the
awareness of the value of tropical savannas, and of the CRC itself,
in the broader community it will help at the political level. Such
awareness will also hold advantages for our own future as a
centre.
In the long term it will be those at school today who make the
decisions tomorrow. It would therefore be of immense value if
primary and secondary students knew more about the land-management
issues in the tropical savannas. The Centre can make some
preliminary initiatives in this area, such as developing more areas
on our website aimed at school students such as a new Q&A
area.
Major awareness campaigns and major school curriculum
initiatives require more resources than we possess however and
cannot be top communication priorities at this stage.
The changes in attitudes and practices that lie at the heart of
the Centre’s mission will often occur in remote locations
between diverse types of people across the tropical north. How such
changes are influenced by communication resources and strategies
are not well studied or well predicted – and an adaptive
approach is essential. Continual evaluation of our communication
strategies and tactics is needed.
- Continue to build on, and support the network of people
involved in land-management research, land management and land use
in Australia’s tropical savannas created by the CRC in its
first round. It assists TS–CRC staff with communication
within the Centre and with other bodies in the network.
- Provide easy access for this network of people and others to
the broad range of land-management research and information on
tropical savannas; in particular, to improve access for land
managers and the people who support them to this research and
information. This is done though websites, through information
packages for extension and education, publications, newsletters
etc.
- Publicise the findings and outputs of TS–CRC to various
audiences: partner agencies and other land management agencies;
land managers and rural audiences; community groups and the general
public. There will be a focus on highlighting the achievements and
goals of the TS–CRC and its identity.
- Raise awareness of the tropical savannas and its land
management issues in the broader community.
The network of relationships between researchers, land managers
and land users that has been built up across the tropical savannas
should be expanded and strengthened – allowing for change in
land management practice to occur as a result of these
relationships and people working and learning together.
Information resources that are easily accessible for the broader
range of people sympathetic to sustainable management of the
tropical savannas will support their own networks that can lead to
change, and will keep them in touch with the Centre’s network
if they want to join it.
Awareness raising activities should enhance the long-term
prospects of having improved management of the tropical savannas by
continuing the process of better informing key decision-makers and
the broader community about the value of tropical savannas.
Publicity that raises awareness of the Centre itself should improve
the future viability of the Centre.
The communication outputs are grouped in 15 areas.
- Annual Report
- Regular issues (at least 14 each year) of the email newsletter
Topical Savannas for TS–CRC staff
- Support for workshops, conferences and meetings that bring
staff together with land managers and people from different
disciplines and regions.
- The introduction of an extensive new website with:
- Areas that can be used by projects independently;
- Information on the TS–CRC;
- Information for people involved in CRC activities (such as the
internal site)
- A bibliography of EndNotes references that allows users to
download and upload Endnotes files – and will allow us to
rapidly compile and update an extensive bibliography on tropical
savanna research;
- An on-line version of the Vegetation Map of Tropical Savannas
that can be expanded to include various layers, and interrogated
for useful data. This will complement the existing VRD map.
- Advice to help projects set up their own web sites,
newsletters, videos, etc. relevant to Centre projects. We also
provide resources such as web sites, images, brochures, folders and
information sheets.
- A writing course for students that allows them to better
communicate with research users.
- Four issues of Savanna Links in 2002–3. We aim to
maintain and build on our audience.
- Research Publications:
- distribution of Savanna Burning;
- Darrell Lewis Book, Slower than the eye can see;
- VRD CD Rom;
- Fuel Guide.
- The Online Savanna Explorer section is being expanded and will
incorporate more recent CRC research. This section is aimed at an
audience interested in the management of the tropical
savannas.
- Development of Innovative web-interfaces for remotely sensed
imagery. This will use seed money to attract external funding for
this sub-project and will seek to complement the efforts of other
CRC projects.
- A major showcase for the Centre’s research at the
National Landcare Conference in 2003
- Other displays using a new display stand, brochures and
information sheets at workshops conferences which include:
- Fire and Wildlife conference, July 2002;
- VRD Workshop, July 2002;
- Qld Landcare Conference, 2002.
- Press releases and media articles that publicise the research
findings and other achievements of the Centre.
- Awareness-raising activities for savannas in general community
- Tropical Topics continued distributions of publications like
savanna burning, support for a feature writer, awareness-raising
areas of the website.
Peter Jacklyn, TS–CRC
Kate O’Donnell, TS–CRC
Julie Crough, TS–CRC
Frances Bancroft, TS–CRC
Chris Devonport, CDU
Barbie McKaige, CSIRO SE
Links
Geoscience Australia - AUSLIG and the Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO)
www.ga.gov.au
