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Sharron Pfueller

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Senior Lecturer, Coordinator, Master of Environment and Sustainability Program

Fields of interest:

Research

Multistakeholder partnerships in environmental governance.

Participation of a range of stakeholders in all aspects of environmental management is increasingly important in achieving environmental sustainability. The processes for facilitating this are diverse and contested.

One project is investigating the structures and processes involved in the coordination and management of biosphere reserves which combine, conservation, education, scientific research and sustainable development in areas which include both natural and urbanised landscapes. Community and institutional enthusiasm has frequently been dampened by governance processes and the challenge is to understand why and how to achieve optimal environmental outcomes.

Projects with research students:

Tourism and sustainability

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries and in many natural areas is regarded as a means of providing income for communities and having lower environmental impacts than many other land uses. However, reducing tourism's own impacts is a challenge. As a member of Monash University's Tourism Research Unit, two projects funded by the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre are being conducted:

Community values for the Murray River Reserves

Communities value natural locations in different ways: from recreational, tourism, economic or natural resource perspectives. These perspectives are based on many factors including familiarity with the area, its intrinsic appeal, available facilities and desired recreational activities of that community. This collaborative project with Victoria and Latrobe Universities aims to provide insight into these values with respect to sites for conservation, camping, tourism and recreation along the Victorian bank of the Murray River. It is providing strategic knowledge to Parks Victoria and other government bodies on which to base decisions for future management of tourism and of natural areas.

Developing effective partnerships for facilitating sustainable tourism in and around protected areas

This project aims to explore a range of partnerships between natural resource managers, communities and the tourism industry to understand how these can be best managed to yield environmental, social and economic sustainability. It is being conducted in collaboration with researchers in the Faculty of Business and Economics and at Murdoch University.

Projects with research students:

Current Teaching

Selected recent publications:

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