Moving from Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) to Integrated Natural Resources Management (INRM)

Our natural resources are under increasing pressure to support the country’s economic growth agenda. Despite a comprehensive legal framework designed to ensure the sustainable utilisation of these resources in achieving the desired levels of growth, environmental reporting at all levels indicates that we are not giving effect to the intention of this legislation. The management of natural resources is inherently complex and requires an approach that accounts for integration across different resources, scales of management, time and a broad diversity of users and resource managers at these various scales. The concept of Integrated Water Resources Management developed as an approach to assist in dealing with this complexity. A limitation of IWRM lies in the fact, that despite the explicit requirement to involve all stakeholders and resources, it has a water centred focus. Integrated Natural Resources Management (INRM) has developed from IWRM and aims to provide a more holistic approach. This project builds on the outcomes of the Afromaison project that presents an approach centred around five key elements considered necessary to facilitate improved integration in Natural Resource Management. The project focussed on developing practical tools and guidance to integrate these elements in NRM practice. The elements are: i. An ecosystem services foundation. ii. Integration at the Meso-scale (district municipal level). iii. An appropriate institutional structure. iv. Tools and instruments to ensure a long-term management view. v. Effective stakeholder engagement. The report documents the main barriers to integration as identified through the experience in the Uthukela District Municipality, located in KwaZulu-Natal which served as the South African Case study for the Afromaison project. The project then proceeds to describe the benefits of the 5 elements individually in terms of improving integration and how they would apply in the case study context. The report concludes by presenting the INRM framework as a whole and describing the collective value of the various elements. While not all the elements or concepts are new, the project has added to existing thinking and provided tools for making the framework useful. Throughout the report analysis is made with regards to the state of water resource management and motivation is provided as to how the proposed framework could overcome some of the challenges currently faced by the water sector.