The research project has been developed by CFA R&D in collaboration with Safer Together staff, as well as agency and community stakeholders. The broader project has been broken down into six phases.
Each phase can be conducted as separate pieces of research that build upon each other, allowing for a staged approach to the research that promotes reflection and refinement of future phases as the project progresses.
This project is focused on Phase 1 and 2, though details of subsequent phases are provided for context.
Phase 1. Scoping current community engagement practices for vegetation management
This scoping project will identify how fire agencies currently engage with members of the community about vegetation management before an activity takes place, including the creation of the Joint Fuel Management Plans (JFMPs), the organisation of a specific activity in a specific location; during an activity; and after an activity. This will be achieved by conducting workshops with community engagement and vegetation management staff to identify how communities are currently involved in each decision-making phase as well as how they could be involved to better achieve vegetation management objectives.
Phase 2. Community Survey – How do community members want to be engaged?
This phase will identify the community engagement needs of communities about vegetation management. The aim is to test a way of collecting data from community members to obtain a baseline understanding of how specific communities perceive current opportunities to engage in vegetation management related decisions and how they would like to be involved in future decisions related to vegetation management in their place of residence or work.
Future phases (not in scope of this project):
- Phase 3. Improvement and development of community engagement products
- Phase 4. Future capacities and capabilities for community engagement for vegetation management
- Phase 5. Monitoring, evaluation and learning framework
- Phase 6. Monitoring, evaluation and learning plan
