Democratisation and capacity building in coastal zone decision-making in Australia : the application of stakeholder analysis and social mapping

The democratisation of decision-making entails the provision of improved access, participation and equality of roles for all stakeholders, particularly those traditionally marginalised such as indigenous peoples, NGOs and voluntary community groups. Democratisation is also dependent on capacity building, which seeks to strengthen the ability and competency of persons and groups to participate and communicate effectively. Strategies supporting notions of democracy and capacity building seek to provide participatory means for informed discourse by improving the knowledge and skill base. This study identifies constraints facing democratising participatory approaches and develops strategies for increasing the capacity of marginalised stakeholders to participate, and have effective roles, in coastal resource management. Focusing on coastal catchments of the Central Queensland region of Australia this research is applying a range of stakeholder analysis models to understand stakeholder attributes and their role(s) in coastal zone decision-making. Stakeholder analysis is a participatory tool that has been used to investigate the values, interests, attitudes and aspirations of stakeholders involved in, or affected by, decision-making. Social mapping classifies stakeholders according to their level of influence and involvement in decision-making and clusters them based on their attributes. The 'social map' generated by the research will provide the platform for more informed and innovative participation in coastal resource management by stakeholders. These tools have been employed to assist in the development of targeted participatory and communicative strategies for stakeholders, in consultation with stakeholders. Preliminary results have provided a greater understanding of how people and groups participate, communicate, acquire knowledge, and the barriers to consultation and access to scientific information.