Pathways Towards Sustainability: The Australian Approach

Abstract

Following its rise to international prominence, sustainability has become an official principle or goal in many countries. Due to contextual differences, countries have followed different paths in the pursuit of sustainability. Approachescan be classified into three categories: green planning; institutional reform; and social mobilization. None of these courses on its own is likely to achieve sustainability. Yet, countries often appear to develop a path dominated by one of these approaches. This paper focuses on Australia, sketches the extent to which green planning, institutional reform and social mobilization have been playing a role in the pursuit of sustainability, and illustrates the difficulties of developing a pathway that combines these approaches.

Stakeholders, natural resource management and Australian rural local governments: A Q methodological study

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“…While local government is typically positioned as less important than the federal or State levels of government in Australia, commentators concur on its importance in environmental matters (Bates 1995;Buhrs & Aplin 1999;Binning & Young 1999a,b;Adams & Hine 1999). They cite local government's proximity to community, its potential to interpret and integrate federal and State environmental policy successfully so that it is meaningful at a regional level and its traditional and well-entrenched roles in planning as being indicative of this importance.…”

Australia and Russia: How do their environmental policy processes differ?

“…Harding (1998) stresses that in Australia all environmental decisions are ultimately political, and politics profoundly influences all steps of the process of environmental decision-making. According to Bührs and Christoff (2006) and Bührs and Aplin (1999), the most significant factor shaping the country's environmental development and policies on the national and international stages, is the political-ideological orientation of the government and the tendency of government to follow the course that is perceived politically least problematic rather than what is considered ecologically rational. Various political parties play an important role in environmental decision-making in Australia.…”