Evaluation & Learning

Evaluation of Landcare projects usually focuses on quantifiable outcomes. Funding bodies generally require:

  • A progressive record of inputs: work hours, plants, materials
  • A progressive record of outcomes: area regenerated, plant numbers, survival rates and biodiversity

We have kept such records since the beginning of the project.  Between January 2004 and March 2011 we have:

  • Fully revegetated the Merewether dunes
  • Made substantial progress revegetating Merewether Baths surrounds
  • Planted 34,000 local native plants, with a 80 per cent survival rate
  • Increased biodiversity from 3 local species to 30
  • Contributed 12,910 hours of voluntary labour to the value of $387,300
  • Won competitive grants to the value of $186,153
  • Developed an effective and harmonious Landcare group that increased its cumulative membership from 4 members in March 2004 to 53 in March 2011
  • Raised community awareness of the role of native plants in coastal stabilsiation and urban beautification
  • Created the basis of a heritage park on Merewether Headland

Note that the last outcome—community awareness—contains no statistics.  This is because measuring increased community awareness is  either impossible or prohibitively expensive.  What we can do, though, is make informed judgments about the impact of Landcare projects on both group members and their communities. To do this we need to go beyond statistics We need also to reflect on and evaluate the learning dimension of Landcare projects—the what, how and why of people’s learning.

When we think of learning we usually think of formal education, the structured learning we get in schools, TAFE colleges and universities. But education is only the tip of the learning iceberg.  Far more important is the learning that is below the surface: informal and incidental learning. We learn incidentally as we work on a project.  We become aware of the significance of this learning when we think and talk about it.  This is systematic learning, the result of reflection. We call this informal learning.

Consider what members of our group have learned. The essence of our learning is that successful Landcare work has many dimensions.  Landcare workers need botanical and environmental knowledge and gardening and landscaping skills.  They need to understand how their work relates to local history and culture.  They need to be able to relate easily to people, to think critically and to plan strategically.  Fortunately, all these capacities can be developed on the job.

Now consider the impact of our environmental restoration work on our community. Novocastrians have a strong sense of place and pride in their city.  But they have little environmental knowledge.  This is not their fault—they have not been taught it.  We believe that there is no use preaching environmentalism to people.  You have to show them that improvements are possible and get into conversations with them about specific environmental issues.  When Merewether Landcare began revegetating the dunes in 2004 many locals said that we were wasting our time, that big storms or vandals would destroy the plants.  Eight years on the native plants are flourishing and locals comment positively on the attractiveness of the plants and how they prevent sand from blowing onto adjacent roads and footpaths.  There has also been very little vandalism.

The gains made in our project have been recognised by the Australian Government - http://www.nrm.gov.au/projects/nsw/hcen/2006-02.html and by Keep Australia Beautiful
Landcare celebrates beach award Newcastle Herald December 7, 2009

We have produced signage, a pamphlet and a website which contain a lot of information about coastal processes, local botany and urban design.  But generally people only go to this information if they are already engaged with the issues. And engagement comes through observation and conversation.
 

Click on a photo to enlarge it and read its caption

 

These signs on the Merewether dune, installed in late 2004, continue to attract the attention of beach users. We designed these signs to mirror beach colours and to have only essential text. This sign, on the fence separating the Merewether dune from the heavily used John Parade footpath, is one of only two explicit recruiting tools, the other being a panel on the back of the full-colour pamphlet explaining our project. Our group has expanded from four people in January 2004 to 36 in June 2011. Most people joined because they saw us at work, not because the pamphlet or sign attracted them. (Photo courtesy of Australian Department of Environment, Water, Heritage & the Arts, October 2008) Signage on our tool shed behind Merewether Baths, November 2010

From 2011 onwards we plan to further develop the educational dimension of our environmental restoration work.  The creation of a heritage park will provide further educational opportunities and the need for supporting materials.  As we do this we will liaise with Council and other stakeholders.  We are increasingly being invited to speak about the project to community groups.  Schools and individual students have visited our work sites, and, time permitting,  there is the potential to develop this aspect of our work.

We are talking here about a spectrum of learning and education, ranging from the individual’s incidental learning on the job to formal presentations and the production of learning materials for groups and the general community.

In this spectrum there is a particular sort of learning that is crucial to project success but generally little discussed. We might call this critical and strategic learning—the capacity of group members and particularly group leaders to analyse project dynamics critically and to act strategically. This sort of learning is best understood by discussing concrete examples.

Our project really began early in 2003  when two of our members asked Newcastle City Council to plant a few shade trees around the picnic tables at Merewether Baths.  We were told that the Council could not help, as it had not allocated funds for this purpose in its current work plan.  We then learned about state and federal government grants for local environmental projects.  In mid-2003 we applied to the federal government’s Envirofund.  In December 2003 we won a $25,000 grant.

Getting this grant was the making of the project.  It made us independent of the Council and other environmental groups and gave us the freedom to get on with the work.  As the project unfolded we came to realise how important this independence was.  The Council’s decision-making processes were bureaucratic and slow; the work style of our initial partner in the project (another local environmental group) was laissez-faire (our partnership terminated after six months). After the election of a new Council and appointment of a new General Manager late in 2008 the Council’s work style became less regulatory and more enabling. Our relationship with Council has become much more productive. 

This is a severely condensed account of the origin and development of our project.   It focuses on only one aspect of our work and learning: our relationship with other organisations. But consider what we have learned, and how. We learned about the complexities of working with other organizations; we learned the value of independence. This was difficult and at times painful learning. Reflecting on what was happening as and after it happened, in conversation and in writing, have been crucial to our learning. You can read about some of this reflection and learning in the papers listed at the end of this section.

Eight years into the project we can see that our capacity to learn has been central to our success.  More than anything else we have learned the absolute importance of determination and persistence. 

The following papers and articles discuss aspects of our learning during the first seven years of the project (2004-10):

Click on a document to download it onto your desktop

A brief guide  summarises our learning about leadership and decision-making in Landcare. We wrote it to help people embarking on Landcare or other community-led projects

Making things happen  begins by examining the botany and control of the coastal weed Bitou Bush, then critiques the regulatory approach to local conservation projects and argues for an enabling approach

Helpful Learning: Improving practice, improving organizations argues that developing a picture of what people actually do and learn in their daily work is central to improving both professional practice an organisational effectiveness

Learning in Landcare uses case study and other research to show that Landcare can be complex and contested

Coastal Landcare: Ecology, Botany, Work  focuses on the ecological and botanical dimensions of Merewether Landcare’s coastal revegetation project, and discusses the distinctive nature of Landcare work

Five Years On: Reflections & Directions Reports on project outcomes to August 2008 and proposes a more holistic approach to evaluating community conservation projecs

Going Deeper: Landcare as Learning This is our most substantial reflection to date on learning in community conservation. The paper examines the what, how and why of informal learning in Landcare, paying particular attention to critical and strategic learning .  The paper draws on the experience of Landcare groups, including our own, as well as international literature on community conservation and adult learning.

For Council harmony, move beyond blame attempts to explain why the then Newcastle City Council found it hard to function effectively

From Nobbys to Iraq discussion is needed argues that only genuine discussion can resolve stalemates between proponents and opponents of urban development projects