Questions/Answers

The Victorian Rabbit Action Network (VRAN) was established to facilitate more collaborative and inclusive approaches to managing Australia’s most invasive species, the European rabbit. Despite over a century of effort, Australia’s ‘rabbit problem’ is still a major burden. Rabbits inhabit over 70% of Australia and cost rural economies more than $200 million per annum. They damage sensitive cultural heritage sites and country of Traditional Owners, and endanger over 300 listed threatened species. Unless rabbit thresholds are lowered, ecological restoration attempts are in vain. It is crucial that our social and institutional responses to the problem are effective and sustainable. Rabbit management is a complex, and intractable issue, influenced by a myriad of biological and socio-political factors. Relationships between community and government are contested. Government agencies have historically favored regulatory and competitive mechanisms to incentivise rabbit management. However, these are costly and their effectiveness is limited. Community-based efforts can be disparate and small-scale, and often not well supported by government. In response to these realities, a democratic and participatory ‘systems strengthening’ approach was piloted to re-cast and build relationships between government agencies and communities, promoting inclusion and participation. It led to the development of the Victorian Rabbit Action Network (VRAN), who have delivered a series of co-designed interventions aimed at making rabbit management more effective. VRAN has provided a novel mechanism for bringing together stakeholders from across community and government. Its participative approach encourages better engagement and interaction with citizens, and promotes the co-design of responses to the rabbit problem. Over 5,200 stakeholder have been engaged, influencing the management practices across 2.4 million hectares of public and private land. Two independent evaluations show social and institutional shifts and improved local-level management, as well as changed mindsets amongst citizens and government officials about how they can work together to manage rabbits.

VRAN facilitates more collaborative and inclusive approaches to mitigating the major socio-ecological impacts caused by the European rabbit. A series of project objectives support this aim: • Facilitate a more democratic and ‘level playing field’ between government and community where collective action is required for effective rabbit management. • Understand the historical, cultural and institutional approaches to rabbit management from multiple perspectives, the factors that influence people’s decisions and actions, and how people work together. • Link multi-disciplinary knowledge and expertise (including social, technical, economic ecological and political) across the community, government, business and university sectors. • Use this knowledge and expertise to co-design interventions that encourage more effective and sustainable rabbit management at all levels of decision-making and action. • Ensure government agencies and the community are active in the planning and delivery of interventions.

Innovation VRAN’s innovation is in changing attitudes and practices of government officials and individuals. Innovation was built on three foundational activities: 1. Sharing of community and government perspectives, to help people think beyond their own knowledge and deliberate on the problem and ways forward (see Attachment C – workshop report) 2. Working with and for community, a facilitating institution was established in which community and government oversee the program, co-investing and co-learning about rabbit management across the state. 3. Co-designing a series of systems strengthening initiatives, challenging bias and current institutional arrangements. Discrimination and equality The VRAN committee is led by a skills-based and gender-balanced steering group of community, government and science experts, ensuring community-based knowledge informs government investment. Robust legal framework Authoritative and competitive policy mechanisms (e.g. regulation and grants) are now better balanced with collaborative processes, essential for addressing ‘wicked’ socio-ecological problems. Participatory decision-making The program moved beyond traditional patterns of participation, developing and facilitating channels for local-level voices to work with scientific and government voices to decide how investments in rabbit management is made. Responsiveness The horizontal initiatives (systems strengthening) and vertical (steering group) connections fostered a responsive state-wide ‘rabbit management system’, with ready access to essential knowledge.

VRAN contributes to achieving Goal 15.8, in seeking to reduce the impact of invasive species. The initiative facilitated a shift in the Victorian Public Service from a state-led regulatory and enforcement model towards a self-empowered community approach to rabbit management. This acknowledges that individuals and community groups need to be involved not just in ‘doing’ rabbit control but also in the design and delivery of programs. VRAN has enabled this paradigm shift by supporting communities to collectively plan, resource and implement their efforts for more effective rabbit management. Importantly, the shift is resulting in reduced impacts of rabbits through changed management practices and better co-ordination of local control activities. VRAN also contributes to achieving Goal 16.6 and 16.7 through its foundations of democratic design, accountability and transparency, and its commitment to participatory decision-making. It has challenged traditional notions of community engagement within the public sector by inviting stakeholders – particularly many who are generally excluded from policy-making and investment decisions – to co-design the initiative not only at its inception, but also in co-investment at the delivery stage, and co-learning in the evaluation processes.

VRAN has motivated and coordinated people across Victoria, especially those in regional and rural areas, to adopt best-practice rabbit management (see Attachments A & C). Government investment in controlling established invasive species, such as rabbits, is declining as emerging public policy issues attract greater share. Without VRAN, we would have seen reduced incentives to manage rabbits, a lack of ownership of the problem, a loss of rabbit control expertise and, ultimately, increased rabbit populations and landscape degradation. This initiative has been able to address this gap by providing a model where community are able to exercise leadership alongside government agencies who manage rabbits. Rather than the responsibility for rabbit management simply being ‘shifted’ to community, with no associated transfer of resources or decision-making power, it has allowed people outside of government to participate in designing investments and provided a channel for government to interact better with communities. The shift from a state-led regulatory and enforcement model to a community-led approach has changed mindsets around working collectively, built participants’ confidence in rabbit management and leveraged investment across the different institutions and community groups (see section 7).

The initiative has brought together disparate groups of people to rally around a common objective, managing rabbits. It has changed the philosophy of individuals and communities from ‘what are you going to do?’ to ‘what can we do?’. This paradigm shift has occurred across Victoria. Sections of the Victorian community who have been marginalised from program design and development – including farming communities, local action groups, women and Traditional Owners – are now included in the decision-making process. A series of interventions were co-designed, overseen by the VRAN committee, which included Rabbit Management Technical Training Program, Leaps and Bounds Learning Network, Mentor Model, Community Innovation Grants Scheme and Conference “Connecting knowledge and know-how for effective action on rabbits.” Through these various interventions we’ve built and fostered a ‘network of networks’ which has been able to move beyond traditional patterns of engagement and bring in these marginalised voices and groups (refer to attached evaluation for commentary on reach and networks). As a result, the initiative has developed new relationships and strengthened existing ones, increased sharing of knowledge and experience and fostered best-practice rabbit control on a broader scale (see section 7; Attachment C - video case studies).

This is the first time in Australia that this democratic, participatory systems-thinking approach has been used to manage invasive species. The historically-favored approach of regulation complemented by pockets of local action has involved only limited formal partnerships, collective goals and shared resources across government, industry and local groups. This initiative uniquely accounts for the social, political and institutional complexities of the rabbit problem – arguably a more holistic, ‘whole-of-system’ approach. Rather than focusing on on-ground works and the linear extension of technical information or enforcement action, it has sought to influence the human dimensions of rabbit management. The community now has greater decision-making power with government. For the government institutions involved, it has led to a re-think about what community participation and engagement means. Rather than engagement being something government ‘does’ to community, government processes are now more inclusive (see Attachment A and C). The ‘systems thinking’ component brings to the fore the untapped potential for finding better ways for community and government to together, by improving our understanding the social and institutional interdependencies across the rabbit management system.

VRAN’s novel approach draws from diverse research and models, but its application to invasive species management is globally unique. The systems-strengthening component of VRAN’s establishment considered previous learning from the public health sector (health systems-strengthening), environment sector (adaptive management and systems mapping concepts), ecosystem approaches for responding to complexity, and institutional economics. The role of ‘democracy’ in the initiative was largely due to a collaboration with Penn State University. Linking democratic political theory to practice gave team members the confidence to engage with stakeholders across the system, and transparently confront and address power imbalances and tensions. An important contributing factor to the initiative’s wide acceptance across government and community and its continued evolution is Victoria’s history with the Australian Landcare movement. Landcare is a grassroots movement made up of more than 5,400 local groups dedicated to managing environmental issues in their local communities. More than 30 years of experience of Landcare is guiding VRAN, especially its approach to building social capital and links between community, government and scientific expertise. Landcare representatives were heavily involved in VRAN’s development, and the movement remains a key supporter.

VRAN’s financial resources from 2014-18 were relatively modest. The principal resource was the collective human capital that has made this initiative a success. VRAN has been able to leverage significant volunteer contributions from community members who have made a strong commitment to the initiative. VRAN’s initial budget was AU$100,000 in cash and $200,000 of in-kind support. This covered the salary of the VRAN Executive Officer, and initial interventions: rabbit management technical training, Leaps and Bounds Learning Network, Community Innovation Grants Program and Conference. VRAN’s budget represented less than 1% of the total biosecurity budget for the state of Victoria over the same period. With decreasing public sector investment in rabbit management, VRAN has demonstrated the value of facilitating community capacity. The inclusive engagement approach built goodwill across the rabbit management system, generating significant additional in-kind contributions. For example, community groups receiving Innovation Grants from VRAN in 2016 more than matched this funding with their own cash, in-kind and volunteer contributions, while community members contributed over $200,000 in time and travel costs to participate in VRAN training and ‘Leaps and Bounds’. On average, voluntary participants committed 8.5 unpaid hours in travel, averaging 281 km to attend VRAN events.

Yes

The philosophical, governance and operational frameworks created VRAN are widely transferrable and are being applied to a variety of resource management and social issues. The initiative has been adapted to other invasive species challenges through a AU$4.3 million dollar investment applying the participatory, systems-strengthening approach to the management of widely established weeds in Victoria. The approach, including its principles of participation, democracy and co-design, has been advocated to the highest level of government as a means of reducing regulatory burdens and promoting economic development. The proposal was presented to public sector, industry leaders and politicians in Parliament House as a novel approach for addressing wicked problems. The proposal is under consideration for endorsement by the Victorian Government (Cabinet) in the 2018-19 financial year. The ‘VRAN story’ is being shared locally, regionally, nationally and internationally (US and Europe so far) in forums on invasive species management, higher education and science. The initiative’s electronic communications (see Attachment C) and learning materials are being utilised by communities, governments and educators as resources for conferences and training programs on community engagement. The South Australian government has a funding bids (under consideration) to extend the participatory systems approach to re-frame rabbit management in their jurisdiction.

Social sustainability VRAN is recognised by those involved at both the community and government level as a long-term opportunity to support communities to manage rabbits. Stakeholders also recognise VRAN as a vital mechanism for connecting organisations and supporting them to coordinate their rabbit control activities for greater impact. There is a growing confidence in the approach as evidenced through ongoing investment in VRAN, and the adoption of its principles inform other complex challenges facing the public sector (as outlined in section 5). Economic sustainability The independent impact analysis (Attachment B) concluded that the VRAN approach is cost-effective compared to regulatory and competitive institutional arrangements. It is not dependent on large investment from government. Instead, it harnesses the social capital of communities. The modest annual operating costs are justified because of the anticipated, large economic gains. Furthermore, the network approach is acknowledged as a cost-efficient mechanism for engaging new individuals, as the initiative’s effects continue to ripple across Victorian communities. Environmental sustainability The damage posed by rabbits to the environment is nationally significant, impacting over 300 threaten and endangered species. Research clearly shows that unless rabbit populations are managed to lower thresholds attempts at ecological restoration are in vain as rabbits preferential grazing young plants. More than three-quarters of participants in the VRAN interventions and activities indicated that VRAN led to environmental benefits for their property, community or workplace (see section 7 – Impact), with the regeneration of native plants the most commonly reported benefit.

The sustainability of the initiative over time is grounded in the strengthening of relationships between individuals, community groups and government. VRAN has fostered ownership of the rabbit problem across sectors through collaboration, co-investment and co-learning. Investing in relationships, knowledge and capacity has also built long-term sustainable ownership of VRAN and its interventions: even when the government agency priorities shift, the impetus at the community level is ongoing. VRAN has demonstrated that the approach is cost-effective and not dependent on large-scale investment from government. Instead, it harnesses the social capital of the affected community to achieve great success. Furthermore, bringing in local experiences and expanding the network across rural areas, through state-wide representation in the VRAN steering group, has built political capital for sustained action independent of government cycles. VRAN’s focus on collectively understanding and supporting the social and political elements of the rabbit management system augurs well for the sustainability of its outcomes. The strengthening of relationships across the system creates an important platform for addressing the rabbit problem in the future. Furthermore, we have anecdotal evidence that indicates these new relationships are building the social capital in communities to respond to land degradation and social well-being. This is placing participants in good stead to further respond to challenges as they emerge over time. Finally, with additional funding secured until 2019, VRAN will lead the development of the first state-wide rabbit management strategy, setting out a coordinated approach and commitments to rabbit management. Importantly, the strategy is community-led rather than government-led. There has also been interest expressed from the private sector in investing in VRAN as part of corporate social responsibility.

Yes

Two independent evaluations were commissioned to understand the range of effects and impacts of establishing VRAN, and how VRAN’s processes could be improved. A formative evaluation (Attachment A) was undertaken two years after commencing the initiative (covering the initial groundwork leading to VRAN’s establishment), and an impact analysis after three years (when initial funding ceased; Attachment B). The evaluations focused on how VRAN affected peoples’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, rather than the biophysical, environmental or economic impacts – the latter required more time to manifest. We were especially keen to understand the effects of VRAN’s creation and early operations on the people and organisations who manage rabbits – in an on-ground role, and at a more strategic, institutional level. The formative evaluation used interviews, a survey and document analyses. The evaluation design applied the principles of ‘utilisation-focused evaluation.’ This was to ensure the information informed future decisions, encouraged reflective thinking to improve the initiatives future performance. The impact analysis, undertaken by a multidisciplinary consulting team, included a survey of VRAN’s steering group, partners and participants, in-depth case studies involving participants, mentors and steering committee members, and impact and reach analyses. An evaluation expert panel was established as a quality assurance mechanism.

The evaluations indicated a fundamental shift in rabbit management in Victoria towards a community-led approach, a decreased reliance on government, and community exercising their agency. As a result of the interventions, a ‘ripple effect’ is unfolding as the network strengthens and grows. Individuals directly influenced by VRAN’s interventions have gone on to influence other individuals and communities. For example, more than 80% of people involved in VRAN’s activities have shared their new knowledge through their own networks. VRAN has influenced and supported local-level management – 84% of survey respondents reported using an integrated approach more often, and 59% have greater motivation to control rabbits. VRAN has also encouraged participants build capacity in their groups and organisations – 78% are now investing in skills development. Over half of participants now see a collaborative approach as an effective way to improve their rabbit management, and 55% are feeling more confident in their work. Three-quarters of respondents reported that VRAN has led to local environmental benefits, with regeneration of native plants the most commonly reported impact. In just four years, VRAN has reached significant numbers. Over 5,300 people have been directly and indirectly impacted, covering 2.4 million hectares of land.

A set of indicators were agreed upon by VRAN committee and project partners that would resonate with the range of decision-makers involved in rabbit management. The intent was to explore whether the initiative delivered meaningful change at the scale of the individual, the community and government. This drew on qualitative (narrative, in-depth case studies and semi-structured interviews) and quantitative (econometrics, surveys) methods and secondary document analyses (e.g. meeting minutes, program documentation). Furthermore, other indicators emerged as important during the semi-structured interview stage in the formative evaluation. Key indicators included: 1. Impact and reach of the VRAN interventions, including gender balance and geographical indicators. 2. Knowledge, attitudes and behavioural changes. 3. Changes in peoples’ mindsets, skills and rabbit management practices. 4. Institutional and cultural change. 5. Community value of the initiatives, including financial and in-kind commitments. 6. Prevalence of rabbit monitoring activities and observed changes in rabbit populations. 7. VRAN’s triple bottom line benefits (economic, social and environmental).

The initiative’s design challenged how the Victorian Public Sector engages the community by encouraging input and decision-making by stakeholders from inception through to delivery. This occurred by broadening engagement beyond the ‘usual suspects’, and clearly communicating the intent of a collaborative approach. At the project’s inception, the facilitator sought participation from stakeholders usually excluded from policy-making and investment processes. This involved recognising the inevitable power asymmetries that exist between government and community and adopting facilitative approaches to address this. Participants in VRAN’s inception and ongoing operations include community group volunteers and staff, farmers, pest controllers, environmental consultants, public land managers, local and state government officials, cultural heritage advisers, indigenous facilitators, social scientists, ecologists, economists and educators. The primary engagement tools at inception were semi-structured interviews, surveys and a deliberative workshop. These built understanding of how rabbit management happens, and generated ideas for how it could be strengthened. The tension that arose through this facilitated process was the starting point for changing the mindsets that led to that conflict. To encourage greater inclusion of local voices, a series of community meetings were convened in rural areas for those unable to attend initial deliberations. Following this co-design process, the joint government-community steering group has led the development of interventions, and implemented them with support from other individuals across the community and government sectors. Mentors from Leaps and Bounds, for example, come from local community groups, pest control agencies and government institutions. The conference keynote speakers were leaders of local community groups, while the design of the grants program was shared between community and government representatives actively working in rabbit management. Outlined in section 7, the evaluations were based on the feedback and perceptions of stakeholders involved through the entirety of VRAN’s development and implementation. Ongoing engagement is embedded in VRAN core business.

We identified five key lessons, with broader applicability: 1. Work with and for people to affect change. With complex and intractable issues, it is important to listen, learn – then act together. Approaches need to bring together stakeholders, explore different perspectives and experiences, question tacit understandings and biases, and then – using those new perspectives – develop solutions that people support and own. 2. There is no ‘silver bullet’: rather, we need to embrace complexity. The biological and social systems in managing rabbits are complex. Previously approaches failed to address this. This approach embraces complexity through collaboration and democracy, rather than trying to force a simple solutions on an intractable issue. 3. Conflict is inherent in invasive species management, and can be the start of meaningful change. This has involved highlighting power imbalances, and then facilitating dialogue to re-dress this. 4. Social change takes time. VRAN, as a social change initiative, is focused on changing mindsets and attitudes. Although we’ve had promising early impacts, these changes need time to evolve. 5. The approach works and can be applied to other complex and challenging issues. It can support public institution to include citizens in program development, and empower individuals and communities to take action.