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Dr. Amma Buckley
Academic Fellow at Curtin University of Technology, Alcoa Research Centre for Stronger Communities
Location:
Australia
Project Title: The Social Sustainability-Environmental Management Nexus: Local People and the Fitzgerald Biosphere Reserve, Western Australia
Publications and Presentations: Beyond Conceptual Elegance: Local Participation and the "Model" for Fitzgerald Biosphere Reserve
Project Description
People are not divorced from the environment, and Dr. Amma Buckley is studying four communities within the ecologically diverse Gondwana region in Western Australia to better understanding people's behavior and attitudes toward their local environment and develop new methodologies to engage the community in meeting local sustainability challenges.
The study communities border the Fitzgerald River National Park (FRNP)—a UNESCO-recognized biosphere reserve and one of the 25 biodiversity hotspots in the world. Current pressures on these farming and coastal communities include: increases in internal migration for lifestyle reasons; tourism and coastal recreation; urban and peri-urban land development; mining and exploration; and environmental restoration.
"Key to the concept of a biosphere reserve is the understanding that local people are integral to the management of both conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, yet there is little research about the ways that local people negotiate and/or manage this involvement," said Dr. Buckley.
There has been little social profiling within the research site, and limited knowledge existed about community attitudes toward, understanding of, and involvement with the environment. A baseline survey has now been conducted in the western side of the Fitzgerald Biosphere Reserve, with a similar study impending on the eastern side. These statistical profiles have been made available to the community.
"To understand particular aspects of the environment, we need local knowledge," said Dr. Buckley. "We asked the locals—people normally outside the reach of research—to help us both design these surveys and then use them to collect the data. We also plan to give cameras to the residents so they can take photos of what is special about their natural environment. This will give us very different imagery about how they view their surroundings."
Biographical Information
Dr. Amma Buckley holds a bachelor’s of social work (Hons) with a Ph.D. (2003) from the University of Queensland, Australia, where she engaged in a range of research contexts. Prior to the current fellowship, she took up a two-year postdoctoral position at the Alcoa Research Centre for Stronger Communities, Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia.
Dr. Buckley’s main research interests lie in understanding the complexities surrounding the movement of people and the significance of place. To date, this has incorporated both external and internal migration. Her most recent project has been working with culturally and linguistically diverse communities (both recently arrived migrants and indigenous Australians) as both researchers and research participants. Currently, she is extending her research to examine social sustainability and internal migration within the southern region of Western Australia. Through local participation, her central aim is to develop and adapt methodologies that engage and strengthen communities around local environmental issues through an understanding of place.
Since taking up her Foundation fellowship, Dr Buckley has been working alongside Greening Australia to develop social profiles and asset mapping in a pilot site within the Gondwana region.
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Newsletter Profile
September, 2006
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