Community-Based Bushfire Management

Project Summary

Community Based Bushfire Management (CBBM) embraces a community-centred model of engagement that aims to empower community and seeks their leadership in shared-decision making processes regarding local bushfire risk. CBBM adopts a facilitated process built on a foundation of trusting, respectful relationships. All stakeholders have an equal voice.

Background and Situation Context

CBBM reflects the Victorian State Government’s Safer Together program, a community engagement model chosen for one of the community-focused projects. The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) introduced the Safer Together in 2016 following an Inspector General for Emergency Management (IGEM) investigation and report on the 2015 Lancefield-Cobaw escaped burn. This burn destroyed several dwellings and sheds, as well as many kilometres of fencing and greatly impacted the local community. The IGEM report made several recommendations relating to the interoperability of land and fire-management agencies. The introduction of Safer Together program enabled agency interoperability, particularly between Country Fire Authority (CFA) (DELWP) and Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMVic). Safer Together particularly targets cross-tenure activities. CBBM was chosen as the model of engagement for this project as participatory models such as this often produce effective behaviour change. This is due to:

• such approaches facilitating more knowledgeable decision-making processes
• community-based partnerships helping to align agency objectives with community goals
• such approaches fostering greater social trust, by strengthening connections between people
• perceptions of social norms around safer community behaviours being encouraged to change
• social network-based interventions reducing social barriers to behaviour change, by diffusing new ideas

A small number of CBBM communities have been running since the inception of Safer Together in 2016.

Activities

Currently, 21 CBBM communities exist throughout Victoria. Eight facilitators facilitate CBBM in these communities and they each have no more than three communities. CBBM communities may comprise one township, or up to four townships, depending on the nature of the relationship between the townships, particularly in the face of bushfire.

Initially, work within the CBBM communities focuses on the development of open, trusting relationships between all stakeholders and a mutual understanding of the priorities of all stakeholders. Ideally, these attributes lead to the identification of local values and priorities with a bushfire context. The identification of these values helps determine what local risk-reduction strategies the community would like to implement. In the early stages, fire scenario presentations are often organised, to help the community understand their risk and to find community members who may be interested in participating in the CBBM process.

Recent community activities included:

• a variety of vegetation management activities;
• media work
• local emergency response plans
• community bushfire exercises;
• property advice visits
• working with special interest groups
• working on better awareness of various emergency options (e.g. Neighbourhood Safer Places) and much more.

Results

First Person Consulting are currently undertaking a number of CBBM evaluation project, with results expected in mid-2019. Babel Fish Group also undertook some Social Network Analysis in St Andrews, one of the longest-running CBBM communities. This analysis has demonstrated that this type of community-centred engagement results in the development or enhancement of local relationships between community members and between community members and local government and agencies. Greater trust develops between community members, local government and agencies. Community members also report positive outcomes in terms of their ability to plan and prepare for an emergency and being more resilient in the face of an emergency.

In addition to the St Andrews analysis, there are also numerous anecdotal accounts of the excellent outcomes produced by the CBBM process. Most notably, fire impacted three CBBM communities during the 2018/19 fire season and there were many reports of positive community actions in the face of fire. Similarly, in previous fire seasons other fire-impacted communities, most notably Wye River, in 2015, which resulted in the loss of 116 homes, with no lives lost and the timely and ordered community evacuation. In part, this is, attributed to the CBBM group requesting a community bushfire exercise approximately six weeks prior to the fire – and consequently being well prepared for the event. Many CBBM groups commented on the relationships they have developed – both with each other and with agencies and local government personnel. This led to greater trust, as well as greater mutual understanding of the issues affecting stakeholders. This meant that groups determined strategies to reduce their bushfire risk in a manner, which respects all stakeholders’ views and was broadly acceptable.

Reflection

CBBM provides a unique model of community engagement. Those involved with CBBM recognise that, for the most part, this model of engagement represents a fundamental shift in the way agencies and local government interact with the community. CBBM promotes a model that moves away from the tradition of agencies ’informing’ the community, but rather seeks to collaborate with and empower the community, ultimately to reduce local bushfire risk. In essence, it is a shift from ‘command and control’ to a ‘bottom-up’ approach, that acknowledges community knowledge and wisdom.

Critical Success Factors

CBBM requires a willingness of the community to embrace and participate in the process. Likewise, agencies and local government need to be ready and willing to participate. Communities need a suitable knowledge level of bushfire risk. For success, CBBM requires a skilled facilitator who understands the nuances required to make this process effective. Facilitators often do well when they remove their uniforms and become a neutral entity, who are not seen by stakeholders as having allegiances. Evaluation shows the widespread benefit of CBBM with the community. The positive impacts of CBBM are far-reaching and are testament to the effectiveness of a community-based approach. Community members respond positively to having the opportunity for empowerment. Furthermore, the development of trusting and respectful relationships has widespread benefits. Community members illustrate the success of CBBM best, no more so than in the following quotes:

Barriers and Solutions

• CBBM is a model of engagement that moves away from the traditional agency top-down model of engagement. Instead of informing the community, CBBM seeks to collaborate with, or empower, the community. A major challenge has been working with agencies and local governments to help community understand what emergency services organisation do, and the efficacy of this approach. The solution to this challenge is to communicate frequently with a range of internal stakeholders, build relationships, demonstrate the achievements of CBBM and above all else, be patient.
• CBBM will not work well in all communities. In this project, some earlier communities selected were not in accordance with the selection criteria. This resulted in some communities being unsuitable for the CBBM approach. This meant that the communities have been especially challenging to engage with and therefore have not been as successful as others. Since that time, the development of a set of community selection criteria ensures a better selection process for communities .These criteria have proven invaluable, as the criteria resulted in far greater success with the communities chosen.
• In some communities, a strong sense of division exists. Divisions are often well-established, and over matters unrelated to CBBM. These divisions are naturally a challenge for the Project Officers undertaking the facilitation of CBBM. As with internal community challenges, the solution to this issue focuses on building trusting relationships between community members, learning to understand the opinions of each other and at all times treating one another with respect. Project Officers broker and encourage these solutions.
• One of the on-going challenges for CBBM is how to integrate this work into agency and local government business-as-usual once the Safer Together Program/CBBM funding concludes (currently June 2020). Significant concern exists relating to how to continue the good community development work achieved with CBBM communities beyond the life of the project, and discussions are currently in play to determine how to support communities beyond June 2020. Fortunately, excellent consensus acknowledges that the CBBM communities need continued support: how this will happen will be determined throughout the 2019/20 financial year.

Additional Project Details