Chapter Two |
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Advisory Board |
At the most formal level, the team created an advisory board: a quarterly meeting comprising invited representatives of major stakeholders: federal, state and local government agencies, regional non-government organisations (NGOs), natural resource managers, elders and local Aboriginal Land Council representatives.
The four Board meetings were held in different local government areas - a deliberate strategy to promote ownership of the project across the catchment. |
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| The major functions of the Advisory Board was to strengthen the partnerships developed over the lifespan of the study through: |
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Communication: A way of ensuring face-to-face two-way communication between the project team and stakeholders;
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Accountability: Ensuring that the project team remained answerable to stakeholders through reports on project progress and discussion;
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Discussion of problem issues: Ideas suggested at Board discussions in response to the project helped project coordinators to come up with innovative solutions to problems. For example, at the first Board meeting, questions were raised about how to provide sustainable access to environmentally sensitive areas alongside the Woronora River where no track currently exists. It was suggested that the project team develop a canoe "trail" along the river so that people could experience the beauty of the river without the need to construct a new track and the adverse impacts such a track would have on the riparian zone.
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Integration: Encouraging major stakeholders to come together helped to avoid duplication of effort, helps the project team and all interested parties to see the bigger picture, and work together to achieve environmental and social goals.
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| Board meetings were well attended. It was pleasing to note that the policy of changing the location of the meetings enabled different individuals to participate, though a core of stakeholders attended all meetings. Notes from the meetings are reproduced in Appendix 3 of this report. |
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• Exec Summary 
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