Transforming governance together: A co-inquiry into practices for transitioning from top-down to adaptive co-governance

There is a gap between the rhetoric and practice of participatory governance in Natural Resource Management (NRM) in Australia. Transitioning from top-down to adaptive co-governance is needed to improve social and environmental outcomes in complex and uncertain governance situations that characterise NRM in the 21st Century. The governance of Australia’s natural resources - the way political, social and economic sectors make decisions and organise action for the common good - operates across national, state, regional, sub-regional and local scales. Each scale has its practices and knowledge base but these can help or hinder the contribution of each scale. Traditional consultative methods for engaging stakeholders in NRM fall short of inquiring as to why practices help or hinder; what keeps these practices in place; and how we might enable rather than constrain the contribution of each scale.