Building capacity in an environmental management industry: investing in collective social capital to advance stream management

The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration recognizes that coordinated, local-scale efforts are the key to up-scaling ecosystem restoration. Australia's stream management industry is one example of an environmental management sector that aspires to up-scale and fully implement participative, integrated, adaptive stream management. While Australia's stream management industry was an early adopter of nature-based stream and catchment management from the 1990s, progress has somewhat stagnated in the last 25 years. This commentary emerged from a workshop with around 200 river and catchment practitioners and scientists from across Australia, who collectively developed action strategies across five focus areas to enable, accelerate and up-scale stream and catchment rehabilitation. We draw on the knowledge, wisdom, ambitions and voices held within the industry. The findings provide a blueprint of action strategies to be implemented by individuals, employers and professional bodies if we are to build and leverage the collective social capital of the industry and harness the will to act. This article provides an example of how a loosely structured industry could be better mobilized and enabled to respond to current and emerging challenges.

Plain Language Summary: International goals for restoring ecosystems, including streams and catchments, require coordinated action by individuals, employers, and professional bodies. This article details the action strategies developed by around 200 river and catchment scientists and practitioners in the Australian stream management industry. What is needed now is clear: committed investment in the collective social capital that will carry forward the industry as a whole.