Western CMA Community Target Monitoring: Social Benchmarking Survey – 2012
This project is being undertaken by the Western Catchment Management Authority in New South Wales. Information about the Western CMA can be found at www.western.cma.nsw.gov.au. The project is being implemented by Environment and Behaviour Consultants (EBC), who are responsible for undertaking the project and reporting on the project findings.
1. What are the objectives of the project?
To manage and improve the natural resources of the Western Catchment, the Western CMA has developed a Catchment Plan though consultation with the broader community, including landholders within the region. The Catchment Plan identifies a series of catchment (resource condition) targets and management targets across four natural resource management themes – rivers and groundwater, land and vegetation, biodiversity and community. These targets will provide the focus for natural resource management in the region over the next 10 years, and will provide the framework for directing the allocation of future CMA funding.
There are several targets within the Catchment Plan that relate directly to the involvement of landholders and the community in natural resource management. Two of these targets are:
- Management Target 1: Sustainable Agriculture Management practice carried out by 50% of landholders by 2016
- Management Target 12: There is a continual increase in land managers’ awareness, knowledge, and skills in NRM and adoption of practices which improve natural resource outcomes.
The core objective of this project is to monitor through survey research progress towards the achievement of both targets. A baseline survey of landholders was undertaken in 2009 and the current project will assess changes relative to this baseline.
A second objective of the project is to benchmark the community’s level of awareness and attitudes towards the Western CMA and again to monitor any changes in awareness since the 2009 baseline survey was undertaken.
The project includes telephone surveys of:
- All identifiable landholders in the Western CMA region;
- 100 urban residents from the towns of Bourke, Brewarrina, Cobar; and Wilcannia; and
- 40 Government and non-Government stakeholder organisations and groups.
All surveys will be undertaken in late 2012.
2. Survey of Landholders
Based on a review of the questionnaire used in the 2009 survey of landholders a revised questionnaire has been developed which allows comparisons with the 2009 survey and introduces new questions of interest to the CMA. The questionnaire is to be used in telephone interviews with all identifiable landholders in the region, which will include people on rural properties and farms.
The telephone interview takes about 30 minutes to complete and names and addresses of those completing the interview are not required or collected. Landholders will be contacted in the evenings and on weekends.
A $30 IGA voucher will be offered to all landholders who complete the interview or if landholders wish, the same amount will be sent as a donation to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Vouchers will be mailed to participating landholders by the Western CMA once all landholder interviews have been completed.
A copy of the questionnaire used in the telephone interview with landholders can be downloaded below. You may wish to complete this questionnaire and submit it to by email to mark@ebc.net.au
Landholder questionnaire for download (50Kb 
)
3. Survey of Urban Residents
This is a small telephone survey which includes a random sample of 100 urban residents drawn from the four towns of (i) Bourke, (ii) Brewarrina, (ii) Cobar and (iv) Wilcannia.
The objective of this survey is to assess awareness of the Western CMA and to identify key NRM issues from the perspective of urban residents. The survey will also allow the examination of trends and changes since the 2009 baseline survey.
A $10 fuel voucher will be offered to all residents who complete the interview or if they wish, the same amount will be sent as a donation to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Vouchers will be mailed to participating residents by the Western CMA once all interviews have been completed.
The interviews will take approximately 10 minutes and residents selected for the survey will be contacted in the evenings and on weekends. The selection of households is completely random. For example, one random telephone number may be selected as the starting point (8091 5008) and another as the end point (8091 9494). Every second phone number between the starting and ending numbers would be contacted until the quota of residents from that town in collected.
4. Survey of Stakeholder Organisations
The telephone survey of Government and Non-Government stakeholder organisations will assess (i) awareness and knowledge of the Western CMA, (ii) the relationship between the Western CMA and stakeholder organisations; (iii) stakeholder beliefs about landholder engagement in NRM; and (iv) trends and changes in attitudes and beliefs since the 2099 baseline survey.
The Western CMA has identified 40 stakeholder organisations to be included in the survey. A letter will be forwarded to these organisations asking for their participation in a telephone interview. The telephone interview take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
5. How is the information to be presented?
Two reports will be developed for this project:
1. Main Project Report
2. Regional Social Atlas
The second report would consist of a regional atlas of the survey findings of landholders. Without identifying specific locations, the atlas would show the general distribution of survey results across the Western CMA region. The atlas would be able to describe the distribution of natural resource management issues across the region. For example, is invasive native scrub more of an issue amongst landholders in the north or the south of the region? Are there specific areas where landholders believe loss of ground cover is of concern? Where do landholders believe poor soil condition is an issue?
This report will describe the project objectives, methodology, analysis and findings. The report will include tables showing the analysis of data by districts and by specific groups. Where appropriate graphics would be used to describe and illustrate the data. Although comparisons across districts within the Western CMA will be undertaken, other analyses may also be appropriate depending on the data being analysed. For example, this may include comparisons between landholders involved in cropping and grazing; between long and short term residents of the region or comparisons amongst older and younger survey participants.
Project Reports (2012)
Project reports from the current project will be included here for download once they become available.
Project Reports (2009)
Project reports from the 2009 surveys which are available for download include: