Integrated Environmental Management: lessons from the Trinity Inlet Management Program

Integrated environmental management (IEM) promotes a holistic and interconnective approach to managing environmental systems through a goal-oriented, strategic process. The literature asserts that interaction is the key to this process, but how interaction is translated into practice is less clear. In North Queensland, Australia, the Trinity Inlet Management Program has been designed to integrate the management of a marine estuary. An analysis of the approach offers lessons for practice by demonstrating how mechanisms for information exchange and joint decision making have increased coordination, and by demonstrating the potential difficulties of implementing IEM.