Transcript Landscape change

Beyond salinity: The challenge of meeting
regional NRM targets through systematic
landscape change
1.
2.
3.
The case for conservation across the
landscape
Challenges to the achievement of
systematic landscape change
Strategies for future land-use and
the FATE Program
Peter Ampt
FATE Program Manager
Strategies for future land-use
1.
2.
3.
Reducing the negative impact of agriculture
through incremental improvement in technology
and sustainability and contraction to areas where it
is most productive and has least negative impact.
Preservation and consolidation of existing areas of
remnant native vegetation both on reserves and on
private and leasehold land.
Landscape change – systematically incorporate
more biodiverse vegetation in the landscape
mosaic and improve its condition.
Landscape change –systematically incorporate
more biodiverse vegetation in the landscape mosaic
and improve its condition.
Systematically – need large enough areas in the right
place to provide connectivity, capture water, protect
riverine areas, provide habitat and shelter etc

Current efforts are fragmentary because they rely on
voluntary uptake by individual land managers who
lose conventional productive capacity as a result of
their altruistic actions. Even when this is implemented
it rarely (if ever?) is done across property boundaries
or on a large enough area to have an impact at a
sub-catchment level.
Landscape change – need to systematically
incorporate more biodiverse vegetation in the
landscape mosaic and improve its condition.
Biodiverse vegetation – Regional NRM bodies generally equate
native vegetation with biodiversity. There is a continuum
between ‘pristine’ native vegetation at one end to a monoculture
crop at the other.


Even a monoculture crop can contribute to biodiversity but the
more vegetation mimics native vegetation the greater it will
contribution to biodiversity. Land use that achieves some of the
structural and functional attributes of native vegetation will
contribute more
Examples include a timber plantation that has multiple levels
and a number of species or a wide windbreak that combines
local native species and commercially harvestable species.
Landscape change – need to systematically
incorporate more biodiverse vegetation in the
landscape mosaic and improve its condition.
Landscape mosaic - in praise of patches
 A patchy landscape is preferable to a uniform one.
Otherwise unsustainable systems such as intensive
cropping, if embedded in a mosaic, will cause less
damage such that the overall landscape may be
stable and resilient.
 By contrast, vast areas of one land use become very
vulnerable under adverse conditions.
 Building connectivity into the landscape is essential,
as is strategically placing forms of land use in the
landscape.
Landscape change – need to systematically
incorporate more biodiverse vegetation in the
landscape mosaic and improve its condition.
Improve its condition – management of biodiverse
areas can impact positively or negatively on land
condition. Monitoring is essential.
 Just ‘locking up’ conservation areas and leaving them
alone is rarely the best approach, unless the remnant
is large enough and largely intact. Regrowth can be
managed to promote greater biodiversity and to
optimize the potential for future returns. A
continuation of threatening processes such as
overgrazing can lead to loss of biodiversity.
Achieving landscape change – the
carrot or the stick?
Voluntary adoption and Incentives
 Regulation and compensation
 Market-based Instruments
 Conservation through sustainable
use (CSU)
 Countering fragmentation through
collective action

The FATE Program
(Future of Australia’s Threatened Ecosystems)
What is the FATE Program?
 What has happened so far?
 What are the next steps?

What is the FATE Program?


An action research program to demonstrate
and evaluate the potential for the
commercial use of native species to
contribute to achieving more sustainable
agricultural production systems in the
rangelands and slopes.
An initiative to integrate native species
enterprises into existing rural enterprises to
make a positive impact on landscapes and
on conservation objectives
What is the FATE Vision?
To incorporate alternative forms of landuse into the landscape mosaic of rural
Australia that combine conservation and
economic return through the commercial
use of native species and biodiverse
environments.
To improve incomes, land-holders are clearing marginal rangelands
for cropping and grazing - can commercial use of native species
provide a viable alternative that is more sustainable?
Landscape degradation:
Past and present land-use has resulted in decline in
ecosystem function, loss of biodiversity and dryland salinity
Cost of this degradation in Australia has been estimated at
$3-5 billion per year
Need for significant changes in land-use patterns
with preservation / regeneration of sensitive and
critical areas – calls for market-based strategies to
ease public burden.
Sustainable commercial use of native
species has potential to allow landholders to gain a return from sensitive
and critical areas.
Species conservation:
Australia has the highest rate
of mammal extinctions
Currently reserves are
insufficient to slow down or
reverse rates of extinction
Need for conservation of habitat and
species on agricultural land; but for this to
happen land-holders need to get some
return rather than just further regulation
(the carrot is better than the stick).
Sustainable commercial use of native species
has the potential to provide that return
Large kangaroos – a pest or a resource?
Populations holding or increasing
commercial zones have increased
cull or harvest - can land-holders benefit?
small existing industry in NSW with
potential for domestic and export market
expansion.
Land-holders could manage kangaroo populations for ease of wild
harvest and gain commercial benefit from them. Further market
development and promotion of wild-harvested roo as clean, green
and good for biodiversity would benefit land-holders.
80% of Australia’s species are
endemic and yet few are utilised
commercially.
Tetragonia tetragonoides; Warrigal Greens

Billardiera
scandens;
Apple Berry
Macadamia
&
Roo Burgers
MacRoo
!
Introducing

“A giant leap forward
in fast food”
FATE projects
The development of the concept of
multiple objective land-use.
 Greenleasing and designing
landscapes.
 Contributing to the development of
enterprises and industries based on the
sustainable use of native species.
 CSU and the Kangaroo industry.

FATE Demonstration sites
Located in rangeland and mixed
cropping/grazing areas.
 Working with existing catchment,
landholder and Indigenous groups.
 Engaging with the broader local
community.
 Advancing FATE Projects at a local
level.

Two FATE projects
CSU and the kangaroo industry
 Designing landscapes and common
property arrangements such as
Greenleasing

CSU and the kangaroo industry

Marketing research and developing new
markets and value chain components
 Clarifying the contribution of kangaroos to
total grazing pressure
 Changes to regulation to encourage
landholder involvement
 Landholder involvement to achieve
commercial returns, more flexible control
of numbers and active management
Designing landscapes and Greenleasing
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Design insertions in the landscape across property
boundaries in sub-catchment through which regional
NRM targets achieved
Create a common property entity that can attract
sponsorship and investment, can apply for bush
tender or other MBI’s
Greenlease land from landholders so they receive
some return for loss of productive area
Utilise local and external knowledge to regenerate and
manage the area
Develop sustainable use systems on Greenleased
areas that achieve commercial and conservation
objectives
Beyond salinity
Landscape change created the
present degradation problems
 We advocate systematic landscape
change to simultaneously pursue
salinity, water quality and
biodiversity targets
 Action is needed before thresholds
are reached
