The report is prepared to discuss about the Social Impact Assessment and Cross Cultural Negotiations managed during the development of Murray Darling Basin Plan in Australia. Among the various topics, the development of this plan is considered in the formal planning systems and thus includes the various impacts created due to social factors and cross cultural negotiations managed to ensure successful plan for the management of Murray Darling Basin. Since the year 2009, the Authority and Government in Australia have taken joint authority and hold responsibilities to conduct 22 commissioned studies and evaluate the social and economic implications emerged from the Murray Darling Basin Plan in Australia (Vanclay et al., 2015). The assessment of social impact will not only help in managing proper cultural negotiations, but will also assist in the management of sustainability, contribute to the proper health and wellbeing of the environment along with management of water, reducing pollution level and contributing to the communities of the Commonwealth Government effectively. The report aims to study the social impacts of the Murray Darling Basin plan and documents the organization that has commissioned the plan and manages the scale and scope of the plan not only to create a positive social impact but also ensure proper management of weather or climatic conditions. It will also discuss about its impact on the irrigated agriculture along with maintaining the salinity or quality of water to facilitate water trade and water pricing reforms based on the rate of returns in agriculture and water salinity too (Raymond et al., 2014).
The conceptual framework is prepared to ensure that all the important aspects of the Murray Darling basin plan are addressed. This would allow the stakeholders to adapt to changes and make sure to prepare a good basin plan for creating positive social impacts and manage good cultural negotiations as well. This will also help in achieving the objectives that the plan assumed to achieve and thus an optimum balance between the demands for water resources has to be achieved too. According to Vanclay, Baines & Taylor (2013), the Murray Darling Basin plan development enables management of the resources of water, which is one of the major driving factors associated with the economy of the Basin and other social characteristics as well which has been a major factor driving the growth in economy of Australia (Vanclay, Baines & Taylor, 2013). The implementation of Murray Darling Basin Plan also involves maintaining a cleaner and healthier environment through providing environmental benefits and reduces the costs of managing the development plan; furthermore ensure that the plan is aimed at progressing towards sustainable development to acquire environmental benefits. One of the major bodies associated with the Murray Darling basin plan is the implementation of policies and program by the Australian Government for reducing the costs of operations and engaging the agricultural irrigators and local communities to gain additional scopes and opportunities to live a healthy life (McDermott, Mahanty & Schreckenberg, 2013).
The objectives are to manage good quality of soil and water in the area and ensure that the local communities are benefited along with the creation of a positive impact on the environment too. The Murray Darling Basin plan is prepared and managed by the Murray Darling Basin Authority with a vision or aim to manage a healthy and clean environment that can support a diversified community and at the same time, enhance the production of food and fiber through agricultural growth, thereby contributing positively to the society’s wellbeing and forming a cleaner and healthier environment. This has been facilitated with the immense amount of investments done from the application of initiative of Australian Government’s Water for the Future and managing reforms as well for meet the social needs of people, though considering the cultural factors as the Basin plan covers a huge amount of area. Baines, Taylor & Vanclay (2013) argued that the basin covers nearly 15 percent of Australia and it holds account of 40 percent of the agricultural production facilitated from the usage of water resources and at the same time, enhancing the health and wellbeing of rivers, wetlands, food plains along with the plants and animal habitats present in the location that has been covered by the Basin (Baines, Taylor & Vanclay, 2013).
The social impacts are assessed to understand the effectiveness of the Murray Darling Basin Plan and how it has contributed to the proper management of water along with creation of a positive impact on the agricultural production n the adjoining areas. As stated by Adam & Shirako (2013), the Australian Government and Authority believes that the Murray Darling Basin plan has enabled improving the diversity of the health wet lands and the entire habitat such as the river, flood plains and red gum forest along with preserving the assets that are present within the Ramsar convention (Adam & Shirako¸2013). There are various species that are dependent on proper supply of water such as the plants, fishes, birds and migratory birds who fall under protection based on various International agreements and federal laws, rules and regulations. The Murray Darling Basin plan has improved the availability of water for these species and ensured that they are protected to maintain the biodiversity of the place (Smith, 2014). It has also contributed to the social benefits by enhancing the hydrological or water connectivity between the valleys, water bodies present there and through betterment of diversity of the habitat, there has been consistent visits by migratory birds and animals, which has enriched the beauty of the place. The flow of water has transferred salt and other useful nutrients that are required to maintain the fertility of soil required to manage proper agricultural production all throughout while the water quality is good and thus it makes it suitable for usage by human beings (Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013).
The MDBA has been responsible for designing the proposed Murray Darling Basin plan for understanding the social impacts that are to be derived and at the same time, obtain feedbacks and responses from the authorities associated with the basin plan. The social impacts include employment impacts, i.e., the employment scopes and opportunities created from the SDLs along with income generated from the irrigation activities (Ribbink & Grimm, 2014). The social impacts’ assessment and analysis are done by the MDBA, which has also identified the issues associated with the basin such as cultural conflicts arising, social problems and unable to gain the trust of people due to lack of ability to adopt the culture of the places.
One of the major social factors to be considered is the population in the Murray Darling basin, which consists of more than 2 million individuals, most of whom are associated with the fishing and irrigated agricultural activities that represent nearly 85 percent of the use of Basin land along with usage for business purposes and employment opportunities accounting to more than 32 percent and 11 percent respectively. Mor, Morris & Joh (2013) stated that there have been rapid changes to the agricultural and rural communities and due to this, the changes in market conditions and economic reforms have created huge pressure on the producers of crops through agricultural activities in the Murray Darling basin (Mor, Morris & Joh, 2013). To cope up with the huge amount of pressure, bigger farm lands are grown and more workers are engaged all together to improve the labour commitment level and ensure management of both social and demographic changes to benefit the adjoining small and remote societies present near the basin. Due to the businesses’ dependence on the basin and agricultural produces in the area; the Millennium drought has not only affected the businesses, but also has created negative effects on the communities and population, which further deteriorated the emotional health of people. The impacts created from the drought constitute a major part of the social context for the communities in Murray Darling Basin and enables the communities and businesses to adopt changes (Glasson & Therivel, 2013). This should ensure that sufficient amount of water and its resources are available for keeping abundant supply of water during the seasons when droughts might be experienced.
The water resources obtained from the management of the basin hold importance are highly valuable for contributing to the society and benefiting the 70,000 population at large. The consumption of water is mainly because of the agricultural activities managed at the basin and it shows that the production of cotton, fiber and food on an annual basis is also dependent upon the climatic conditions. The rice crops production has excelled and the dairy industry has also been benefited along with the horticulture’s influence contributing to the business management within the agricultural industry along with availability of water resources, growth of production level and efficient usage of water. The most important influence that has been created with the basin plan is the wider economy conditions emerged with the consistent growth of agricultural production along with availability of sufficient water resources to facilitate the production value (Wheeler et al., 2014). This has increased the gross domestic product or GDP of Australia and enhanced the productivity to a large extent.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the population trends change from time to time with the condition of the basin and according to the resources obtained from the management of the basin. This has been a major factor that has facilitated the communities of the Basin and even created employment scopes and opportunities for people in the businesses managed there. The Government of Australian has been focused on maintaining a cleaner and healthier environment and at the same time, enabled private capital, which has allowed the people depending on agricultural activities to access the credit for managing the operations and processes and create expansion of market to establish successful global business management (Adger et al., 2013). With the population, mostly dependent on the water resources and agricultural activities managed with the help of the Murray Darling Basin, the communities have explored new ways to attract tourists and thus the eco tourism facilities, fishing activities and boating are major activities managed. These activities are closely related to the culture of the place and this has benefited the communities by making the place a natural attraction for the tourists. As stated by Marshall, Connell & Taylor (2013), the tourism activities are facilitated and the eco-tourism approaches have not only attracted tourists, but have also preserved the ecological balance in nature by closely adopting the local culture and creating cultural association with the irrigated agriculture (Marshall, Connell & Taylor, 2013). The environmental flow towards the tourism industry has further expanded the scopes and opportunities for creating more sources of revenue for the local people and adopting local culture to meet the needs of people. From the evidences and researches, it was found that among all the places in the basin plan region, Murray employs the highest number of people, i.e., nearly 15000, which has enhanced the rural agricultural employment and directly created an impact on the agricultural production positively.
The methods used in the research are used for the purpose of evaluating the alternatives and manage proper monitoring, evaluation and mitigation of issues that might be experienced while researching on the subject related to the social impacts assessment and cultural negotiations at Murray Darling basin. As it is known, social impact assessment is actually the consequences generated based on the actions undertaken by the human beings, which can also change the way people live, work or plat or organize their activities to meet the needs of people by staying as a responsible member within the society. The assessment of social impacts also include consideration of the cultural aspects and enable changes to the values, beliefs, norms and practices managed by people within the community to support proper recognition of themselves as a responsible individual within the community (Bark et al., 2015).
The participatory approach helped in engaging people altogether and obtain information based on the responses provided by them while the interview sessions conducted also helped in understanding the views and opinions of the individuals who are associated with the basin plan. The major processes associated with the social impact assessment are related to the various stages followed such as the scoping, profiling, predicting, evaluation, mitigation and finally monitoring. The scoping stage enables identification of the issues associated with the social impacts assessment based on various consultations and meetings with the involvement of multiple individuals who are involved with the management of Murray Darling basin plan. The profiling stage enables the acquisition of data and information required to differentiate between the changes constructed and impacts obtained within the community, furthermore create a scope of interest about balancing the social, economic and environmental aspects properly (Pahl-Wostl et al., 2013). The prediction stage has allowed for understanding the feasibility of the plan and determined the efficiency of the social impacts, furthermore obtained expert feedbacks and opinions while the evaluation stage has helped in determining the impacts and its acceptance. The mitigation stage, as the name suggests, is focused on resolving the negative impacts associated with the social impacts and progress on to the next stage, i.e., monitoring to ensure that n such issues could occur again and deteriorate the successful implementation of strategies to create positive social impacts (Jackson & Barber¸2013). The SEA integration techniques include the cost benefit analysis that has evaluated the changes in ways water resources are used and how it contributes to the conservation of the ecosystem and creating benefits for the community as well.
Due to the basin plan, there are many places that have been affected due to the irrigational activities and the salinity of water has also created difficulty for many people to use it for various purposes. Robinson et al. (2013) stated that it is always important to maintain proper culture and adopt the local culture for facilitate the growth of businesses in the area and ensure proper flow of culture (Robinson et al., 2015). The flow of culture is considered as a natural flow and thus there is very less understanding about the requirements for usage of water. There were several issues associated with the management and adoption of a healthy culture, which not only created difficulties for people, but also created conflicts and misunderstandings due to which the businesses dependent on the basin plan were affected along with the adjoining communities (Alston, 2013). The cultural governance has been considered as useful by the Aboriginal people, which have differentiated between the cultural flow and flow of environmental aspects. Here the values, beliefs, norms and rules are considered while making a decision and this has been facilitated with the involvement of people within the community, who have followed these values and helped I making the right cultural decisions . Few of the priorities included the environmental watering considerations for the Commonwealth-held water and this was the role of the MDBA while the decisions were made mostly made by the CEWH for engaging the Aboriginal people to manage proper cultural flow and the consideration of environmental aspects too (MacDonald, Bark & Coggan, 2014).
The cultural issues have been very much important for the implementation of the different projects and plans. As it is the largest rivers system in Australia it covers a wide range of area in the country and crosses over the regions where several types of people live. The water is extracted for the irrigation work all over the country. However, the consequences are fatal and it has led to the environmental degradation in a huge manner (Grafton & Connell, 2013). As per the studies, it has been noticed the development of the water market is in the plans of the Federal Government of Australia. The property right is an aspect that has to be dealt with much care in the contemporary times (Hart, 2016). As per the historical evidence, the river system of Murray-Darling can be considered as an integral source of water to the aboriginal people in the country. This river system is being used for several purposes indeed. However, the need of water for the aboriginal people is indeed one of the most important aspects.
The ill effects of this Murray-Darling basin plan is understood when the aboriginal people are kept out of the facilities gained by the market-based arrangements for the higher benefits. The individual rights to the water or the water related entitlements could be considered in this context (Grafton & Connell, 2013). The property rights approach has been considered as one of the most important issues to look at the cultural insights into the matter. The expansion of this Murray-Darling basin is around 3500 km from Queensland to the South Australia. More than 90% of water is used for the irrigation for the agricultural issues indeed. The property rights framework is one of the most important frameworks for the proper understanding of the cultural factors and the benefits of the Aboriginal people within the country (Grafton & Horne, 2014). Around 3 million people in the country depend on this Murray-Darling basin for their agriculture and production of foods (Wheeler et al., 2014). This basin is considered to be the home for more than 50 types of aboriginal language groups or cultures. This is why it is very rich from the cultural aspects as well. This Murray-Darling basin also has some environmental values to its credit as well (Hart, 2016).
The water reform program will also be a very significant aspect regarding this issue. The water rights in the country of Australia are regarded as the statutory rights (Grafton & Horne, 2014). The creation of the property rights could be treated as the basic necessity for developing the water markets in general. The land titles and the water rights had been separated. This gave birth to the policy of the tradable water in the country. The need for the water among the indigenous land areas had not been recognized previously. This had caused a tumultuous situation or scenario (Grafton & Connell, 2013). The treaty rights with the indigenous aboriginals were not implemented and this was the main reason for the problems being caused.
Conclusion
The Basin had been considered as effective for balancing the social, economic and environmental outcomes, which has created convenience for the Government and regulatory bodies to implement the Water Act, which promoted successful usage of the water resources. As part of the social responsibilities, improving the environment health and wellbeing are also considered as a major positive outcomes achieved through management of ecosystem services and functions associated with the preservation of environment assets and focusing on reducing the monetary implications, furthermore maintained a safe and clean environment without much effects caused due to activities conducted by human presence in the Basin. The report was prepared to focus on the social impacts assessment and cultural negotiations managed at the Murray Darling basin plan and thus it could be seen that water resources were managed and at the same time the communities present in the regions were benefited through greater employment opportunities and tourism facilities made available for the people visiting there as tourists too. The consideration of culture was managed to ensure successful negotiations to be made and engage the Aboriginal people to facilitate the process of decision making, preserve the resources and maintain proper environmental flow to the utmost level possible.
References
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