Developing Land Use Policy for Environmental Objectives: Some Perspectives from the Rangeways Project in the Western Australian Goldfields

Abstract

A decade ago, a national decline in the pastoral wool industry and increasing demand for other land uses made a rethink on land allocation, management and access in Australia's rangelands essential. Market forces were inadequate for achieving necessary structural adjustment and land values were based purely on perceived pastoral potential. Growing support for other land uses and other environmental and social values were not recognised by the market. As well, regional communities wanted greater involvement in decision-making about their future. The Rangeways project was established in 1995 to research ways of identifying and reconciling opportunities for different land uses within the framework of community-based regional planning and Ecologically Sustainable Development policy. Key outputs were to be processes, rather than a specific land use plan. At the end of the research phase in 2000, the project had successfully initiated community-based land use planning at a regional scale, but it remained a step along the way. This article summarises the project's breadth of activities and then focuses particularly on the economic and policy implications for land use.