The role of governance in delivery of natural resource management programmes – a case study involving the restoration of freshwater fish communities in the Murray‐Darling Basin

Summary Good governance is crucial in the effective management of complex natural resources issues. There are many elements of effective governance, with recent work proposing eight principles relevant to natural resource management. In this study, we consider the Native Fish Strategy ( NFS ) – a long‐term plan for restoration and protection of native fish in the Murray‐Darling Basin ( MDB ) – as a case study to explore how these eight principles supported the programme's governance, and in particular, outcomes achieved for stakeholder engagement, knowledge generation and programme delivery. We present a scalable governance model derived from the examined case study, which we believe effectively, links science, management and community participation and would be useful for tackling natural resource management problems at a range of scales in other situations.