Regions map information

Australia’s history of managing the environment grew from a growing awareness of negative land use impacts like loss of soils following droughts and rising salinity levels in land and water.

New South Wales (NSW) was the first Australian State to adopt catchment management as a state-wide statutory policy, with the Catchment Management Act 1989. Catchment management underwent several iterations in NSW with the Catchment Management Authorities Act 2003 being replaced by Local Land Services Act in 2013. 

The Victorian Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 legislated for the production of 10 Regional Catchment Strategies covering all of Victoria. These strategies were required to adopt a landscape (catchment) approach in partnership with regional communities for social, environmental and economic outcomes. Following a review in 1997, a wider range of issues, including river health, salinity management, land management issues (such as pest plants and animals) were brought into the framework and regional Catchment Management Authorities were established and empowered to plan and address these issues. 

In South Australia, there are eight regional landscape boards and Green Adelaide formed under the Landscape South Australia Act 2019. Prior to this were eight Natural Resources Management (NRM) Boards who brought together roles previously performed by the Catchment Water Management Boards, Soil Conservation Boards, Animal and Plant Control Boards and Pastoral Boards. 

The Tasmanian Natural Resource Management Framework 2002 and the Natural Resource Management Act 2002 provide a structure for management of natural resources in that state, and establish the three NRM regions, prescribing memberships, functions and responsibilities. 

Elsewhere in Australia regional NRM organisations are non-government entities.

In 1999, the National Natural Resource Management Task Force released a discussion paper, Managing Natural Resources in Rural Australia for a Sustainable Future, outlining a possible overarching policy framework for regional natural resource management. Many of the elements of that paper remain relevant today such as devolving authority and empowering regions based on planning, negotiating, implementing and monitoring regional strategies. 

In 2000, the Steering Committee for the National Natural Resource Management Policy Statement reported results to the Agricultural and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand (ARMCANZ) and the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC). The Council of Australian Governments adopted a regional landscape approach to NRM. This approach (implemented in partnership with State/Territory governments) identified 56 Natural Resource Management Regions. Each region has an identified regional landscape planning body that is responsible for assessing the state of their region and mapping a 5-year (renewable) strategy. These strategies/ blueprints are intended to guide investment from all levels of government as well as community effort.

taken from:

Dr Kate Andrews, Everything is connected, https://nrmregionsaustralia.com.au/resource/everything-is-connected-why-australia-needs-integrated-landscape-management/ pg14