| Sustainable
Resource Use May Impose Costs on Future as Well as Present Generations
Dr John D. Mullen
NSW Agriculture
Aim: The aim of the paper
is to review some aspects of sustainable resource use including the rights
of future generations and notions of fairness, and the opportunity cost
to future generations of weak and strong notions of sustainability.
Conclusions: While sustainable
resource use is as much a matter of equity or fairness to future generations
and other species as a matter of efficiency, some patterns of sustainable
resource use are likely to impose high costs on future as well as present
generations. The traditional benefit/cost framework used by economists
still provides information about opportunity costs that, along with community
views about fairness, is valuable in making choices about the management
of natural resources.
A National
Framework for Environmental Management Systems (EMS) in Australian Agriculture
Peter JM Johnston (a) and
Len Banks (b)
(a) Queensland Department
of Primary Industry and (b) NSW Agriculture – Orange
Managing our natural resources
is critical to maintain the long-term economic and environmental viability
of agriculture and the wellbeing of our communities. Moving towards
sustainability in our management of natural resources increasingly demands
a systems approach integrating social, economic and environmental
issues and providing a bridge between on-farm activities and regional and
national objectives.
As a voluntary and flexible
systems approach, EMS can encourage sound environmental management
beyond compliance with legislation. An 'environmental management
system'(EMS) is a systematic approach to assist any enterprise to identify
and manage its impacts on the environment. As an integrated business management
tool, an EMS can effectively complement and build on other existing activities
such as property management planning, best management practices, codes
of practice and quality assurance schemes. EMS provides a management framework
based on a simple `plan, do, check, act' cycle that achieves continuous
improvement. A manager uses the system to identify their environmental
impacts and legal responsibilities, then implements and reviews changes
and improvements in a structured way. To provide credibility for
external stakeholders, producers may decide to have their EMS externally
audited and may become certified to the international ISO 14001 standard.
Industry is already improving
management, encouraged by changing market demands. A framework
promoting partnerships between industries, communities and governments
can help to ensure approaches to EMS are coordinated.
A national framework was
released for public discussion in November 2001 and provides a valuable
context to coordinate and facilitate voluntary industry-led activities
in agricultural EMS, and to improve the integration of these activities
across different scales. Linkages between key agencies and landholders
will ensure that actions carried out on individual properties can align
with regional targets and contribute to achieving larger scale environmental
outcomes. Achieving the full potential of EMS across the agricultural
sector may contribute significantly to achieving improved catchment and
regional outcomes, and also provide other benefits to landholders.
These include security of market access and efficiency gains through the
adoption of more systematic monitoring and decision-making processes.
The EMS Working Group,
under the auspices of the Natural Resource Management Standing Committee,
are currently finalising the framework following receipt of the comments
from all sectors including government, industry, community
and individuals. An Industry/Community Steering Committee has been
established to ensure that the framework is appropriate to stakeholders.
The comments received from the consultation were generally favourable and
constructive. The revised framework will be released in November
2002.
Balancing
Economic, Environmental and Social Tradeoffs in Agriculture
Dr Thilak Mallawaarachchi
CRC Sugar, James Cook University
Summary: Agricultural production
systems in the contemporary context are best evaluated in terms of their
ability to meet three objectives: economic viability, environmental compatibility
and social acceptability. Minimising environmental externalities in production
systems is therefore essential to achieve sustainability of agro-ecosystems
worldwide. Changing patterns of global demand for agricultural commodities,
globalisation of markets, technological progress, and greater environmental
awareness of global communities are affecting the social value of rural
resources traditionally employed in agriculture. Land use change in many
agricultural regions is a dynamic process that determines the balance between
these tangible benefits of production and the environmental and social
values that often escape economic calculus. Many past responses driven
by shorter-term gains have led to severe ecosystem decline, and the irreversibility
of development activities demand greater focus on the economic-environmental
trade-offs in land use decisions. Private allocation decisions that exclude
non-use values of environmental benefits are both socially undesirable
and economically inefficient. Changing the behavioural patterns of land
users to fully accommodate triple-bottom-line benefits is an ongoing challenge
facing the Australian society that displays an equal interest in preserving
the environment and enhancing agricultural productivity for greater social
benefit.
This paper presents an overview
of a six-year multi-disciplinary research program designed to examine the
joint economic and environmental benefits of land use options for the Australian
Sugar Industry. We examine the feasibility and usefulness of regional planning
and science-based policy analysis as opportunities to encourage efficient
resource use to meet triple-bottom-line objectives.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates
the benefits of an integrated approach to resource use planning and policy
design to guide efficient resource use in a dominant Australian agricultural
industry. Insights drawn are widely applicable across Australian agriculture
and offer a valuable framework for examining options to address broader
sustainability challenges facing the agriculture sector.
Waste
Management or Soil Management
Gerry Gillespie
Resource NSW
Summary: The focus of recycling
programs over the past ten years has concentrated on the reuse of glass,
plastic and paper with the reuse of organic materials constantly running
a poor second.
Yet all this same time our
soils degrade at a frightening speed. More than 75% of Australia’s agricultural
soils have less than 1% organic material – yet we stuff thousands of tonnes
of organic wastes into landfills every year – never to return to the food
chain.
More than ever before we
need to look closely at our emotional attachment to the past practices
of waste disposal. We need to question our very understanding of the concept
of waste.
The cost of landfill in all
areas urban and rural is grossly underestimated in an effort to enable
us to justify carrying on our current practices. The true cost of landfill
disposal in some urban areas is closer to $200 per tonne rather than the
$60 to $90 we charge. In the rural sector it is more like $70 per tonne
– in some areas disposal is still regarded as ‘free’.
Around 60% of all the materials
we put into landfill is organic and a very large part of this has come
from our own national farming processes.
Landfill in all its forms
has become one of the largest long-term problems facing urban society today.
It steals our space, devalues our property, threatens our waterways and
contaminates the future. It is the graveyard of sustainability and compromises
the very survival of future generations. At the same time, the other end
of the process, farming, depletes our soil, pollutes our waterways, and
increases our foreign debt.
Yet the greatest contaminant
in landfill is organic material. It is organic material which leaches through
the landfill to create further problems of contamination and pollution.
If this organic material
could be returned to the food chain we could eliminate forever the problems
of landfill, create local employment programs and go some way to relieving
the destruction of our soils through the overuse of chemical fertiliser.
Using the same money we already
use to dispose of waste to landfill we can design national programs, which
are focused on the removal of organic materials from the waste stream and
the processing of this material into a viable, balanced organic product
for use on farmland.
Conclusions: This paper outlines
a project to use a large part of the $3 billion we spend on landfill each
year in national organics reuse programs of direct benefit to long term
sustainable farming.
Measuring
whole-farm sustainability and profitability at a credible rate
Associate Professor Jim Scott
Centre for Sustainable Farming
Systems, University of New England
Aim: To present an example
of a method of comparing the whole farm sustainability and profitability
of three different farm management systems.
Conclusions: Comparisons
of the sustainability of whole farm systems need to be conducted on a scale
which is credible to farmers if they are to adopt research findings.
Abstract: There is a considerable
gap between what scientists see as valid research trials and what farmers
see as evidence of improved farming practices on a credible scale – especially
when experiments attempt to measure such broad concepts as ‘sustainability’.
A producer-led research and
adoption group on the Northern Tablelands of NSW (The Cicerone Project)
is attempting to conduct valid comparisons of farmlet sustainability on
a scale which is credible to farmers. By working with technical specialists,
the farmlets have been designed in a way that allows valid comparisons
of different management pathways to profitability and sustainability.
Although the farmlets are
not replicated, researchers associated with the project believe that comparisons
are valid due to the careful pre-experimental classification of the land
which allowed the partitioning of each farmlet into equivalent areas based
on soil type, topography and fertilizer history.
Since July 2000 the farmlets
have been managed in quite different ways to examine hypotheses relating
to the impact of level of inputs and of intensive rotational grazing systems.
Measurements are being carried out on the whole farm systems including
soil, pasture, animal, economic factors as well as labour inputs.
In this way, it hoped that the different trajectories of critical factors
over time will inform farmers and researchers about the ‘sustainability’
of whole farm systems.
Can salinity
management enhance biodiversity and benefit agricultural production?
Geoff Hodgson and Dr Tom
Hatton
CSIRO Land and Water
The southwest of Western
Australia is particularly rich in terms of biodiversity. Clearing for agriculture
has greatly reduced the extent of native vegetation in wheatbelt catchments;
it also set into train hydrogeological and hydrological changes that are
still evolving toward a new equilibrium. With those changes comes widespread
land salinisation that presents a further risk to remnant vegetation and
existing agricultural production, particularly in low portions of the landscape.
GIS and hydrological modelling techniques were combined for a regional
scale assessment of salinity risk. The equilibrium position of shallow
groundwater was modelled for the Blackwood Catchment, and used to assess
the extent of risk to a set of remnant vegetation classes. Further hydrological
modelling assessed the rate of development (and hence the rate of impact
on remnants and surrounding land) of these watertables for given case study
sites. The potential to protect remnants whilst maintaining and enhancing
agricultural production by controlling salinity with revegetation, surface
and groundwater control and groundwater pumping was examined.
Conclusions: Revegetation
on a large scale can control groundwater development in the medium term
however would require the retirement of agricultural land and impact significantly
on profitability of agricultural production in the absence of new
agroforesty industries. Surface and groundwater control can control
the development of dryland salinisation and allow agricultural production
to continue and return to areas that would otherwise be lost, but at considerable
cost. Groundwater pumping can protect high value assets such as biologically
significant remnants and rural infrastructure however will be cost prohibitive
for all but the highest priority areas and control is likely to be highly
localised. An integrated approach will allow agricultural production
to continue whilst improving prospects for biodiversity.
Sustainable
Grazing, Southern Gulf Catchments
Aim:
- To improve vegetation
management and carbon cycling on an extensive cattle station in North
West Queensland’s Southern Gulf Catchment by better utilisation of country
and water and rest. (We are rotating our stock, budgeting monitoring and
recording our available fodder with the welfare of the fodder and land
uppermost) The availability of polythene pipe and effective electric fencing
have allowed underutilised country to be grazed and overutilised country
to be rested.
- To reduce animal methane
production by crossbreeding cattle with more efficient feed conversion,
earlier maturity and turnoff . The availability of imported African
adapted genetics has allowed the option of a 3rd cross and the benefit
of extra heterosis Most emphasis in cattle breeding has been towards larger,
faster growing and later maturing cattle. With this came inherent problems
of greater animal maintenance and the animal taking longer to turn off
and reduced fertility. Because the adapted hybrid doesn’t struggle in our
environment and difficult seasons, it can maintain production more
efficiently, (rumen flora) and consequently reduce methane production thus
increasing animal growth.
Part of the improved system
of water supply includes the piping and troughing of water and the fencing
and control of riparian areas allowing the medication of water supplies
with the addition of urea (nitrogen), mineral and trace elements for deficiencies.
This having the effect of increasing the efficiency of rumen flora with
numerous spinoff benefits.
The control offered by smaller
monitored paddocks with numerous watering points allows even grazing, timed
to maximise plant growth and health. This allows for several grazes during
the fast growing (wet) season, thereby slowing and extending plant maturity.
Furthermore this allows more country to be rested
- To have independent scientific
benchmarking and evaluation on the results as they emerge. We would encourage
participation by external monitoring,i.e., student theses etc.
- To have environmental accreditation
of the property and its product. To drive the changes required for uptake
and improved grazing management practices, we need suitable environmental
accreditation for the property to market its product for increased value
and allowing the option of eco-tourism. The proven results may further
be used for educational purposes not only for graziers, but also for the
wider community.
Conclusions: We are 4 years
into our programme and pasture management is now driving the system. This
has resulted in several paradigm shifts. We have managed cattle for generations
with the belief that 4 –6 km was suitable for animals to walk to water.
Meat science has now made us re-evaluate animal production, and cattle
need to grow at least 0.5kgs a day. Our extended dry season and low pasture
nutrition means that the energy and protein isn’t there to sustain these
distances and make those gains for 6-7 months of the year under conventional
management. Further close observance shows the majority of cattle don’t
graze more than 1.5kms from water. Further shifts include the emphasis
moving from caring for the animal to caring for the fodder. A big shift
in thinking has been the realisation that the numbers of animals aren’t
the problem; the critical findings are the timing and control of grazing.
Other shifts are the solar harvesting, the requirement of diversity of
flora and fauna, and the dominance of annual over perennial pasture species
where little grazing impact occurs. Market and season variability and rising
costs constrain progress. Records are accumulating and we have quickly
found that water is the most expensive change followed by fencing. Poly
pipe prices have doubled since we started and this is slowing more sustainable
use of the Great Artesian Basin here and elsewhere.
Achieving
Sustainable Relationships between Australian Landholders and Landscapes
David S. Mitchell
The Johnstone Centre, Charles
Sturt University
Summary: Many attempts to
establish ecologically sustainable forms of economically productive land-use
in rural Australia are conceptually flawed. Australian landscapes
are markedly different to the landscapes, where much of the agricultural
expertise that is used by Australian farmers, was initially developed.
Consequently, many attempts
at productive management of these resources have resulted in a number of
destabilising changes to Australian ecosystems. Many of these changes
are well-known and have been subjected to research studies aimed at ameliorating
the adverse effects. Unfortunately, the conceptual errors that initiated
the problems have not been subjected to the same investigative rigour.
Incorrect assumptions have not been described or quantified. Alternative
approaches to the economically beneficial management of Australian natural
resources that are compatible with Australian ecological processes have
not been sufficiently explored. As a result, many of the attempts
to correct some of the more unwelcome consequences of the management of
Australian landscapes are classic examples of "managing at the margins".
This sorry situation is exacerbated
by the major economic impacts suffered by most primary producers of uncertain
market forces and high variability in climatic factors. There would
be significant benefits in providing more reliable components to the income
of rural landholders.
The relationships between
these interacting factors will be examined at a conceptual level and possible
means suggested for managing Australian landscapes from an Australian perspective
by landholders that are sensitive to the nature of Australian ecological
processes.
Conclusions: The conceptual
basis of landscape management in Australia requires critical reevaluation.
Landholders need to be financially
rewarded for the Stewardship of the environment.
Appropriate methods of economic
exploitation of Australian natural resources need to be investigated.
Regulation
of Agricultural Chemicals into the Future
Dr RJ Smith
National Registration Authority
for Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (NRA)
Summary: The use of agricultural
chemicals is an integral part of Australian agriculture. They have widespread
and important applications in the control of pests and diseases in most
areas of agriculture. They also pose potential risks to the environment
and human health. It is essential that Australia has an effective regulatory
framework for agricultural chemicals to ensure that risks are appropriately
managed while the benefits of agricultural chemicals are realised by Australian
farmers.
Through the NRA, Australia
has an internationally renowned regulatory framework for the registration
of agricultural chemical products. Before any agricultural chemical product
can be legally supplied in Australia it must be registered by the NRA.
This process involves rigorous evaluation to ensure that products, when
used as directed, will not present undue hazards to people and the environment.
The effective regulation
and use of agricultural chemicals is therefore an essential component of
a successful and environmentally sustainable agricultural sector. Numerous
issues are emerging which will pose challenges to the regulation of agricultural
chemicals, and it is important that Australia responds effectively to them.
This paper will look at the current regulatory system and some of the challenges
it must respond to in the coming years.
Better
water quality: A case of building a shared future
Alice Woodhead
Agricultural Systems, University
of Western Sydney
Individuals and groups view
environmental issues in different ways depending on a number of factors.
These factors include the on-site and off-site economic costs, the scale,
the length of time for change to occur, and public and organisational perception
about the importance of the issue.
Another factor which has
been identified as highly relevant in a study of farmers and organisations
managing diffuse source pollution from coastal land for better water quality,
is the level of control that an individual or organisation perceives that
they have over their future. The study found that farmers that had a cohesive,
supportive industry body were developing stronger links with the community
and were positive about their individual and shared future and felt 'in-control'.
These farmers are actively working with scientists and the industry to
develop self-regulation for better water quality. Farmers in the industry
groups that are not supported by their industry bodies were frequently
in conflict with the community and government organisations over water
quality and felt 'out of control'. This talk discusses why it is important,
both from the perspectives of regulatory compliance and building social
capital, to formulate policy that enables the empowering of both individuals
and organisations by building participatory research groups and knowledge
networks.
Sustainable
agriculture: A farmer’s perspective
Bruce Maynard
“Willydah”, NSW
Agriculture in Australia
today continues with practices that degrade our environmental, social and
economic assets. The encouraging aspect of the present situation
is that there are methods available that regenerate and improve the triple
bottom line. The Maynard family farm is an example of some of these
methods in action. To make the breakthroughs that are necessary then
landholders will have to change not only methods and systems but more importantly
their values and thinking.
We believe that landholders
have two basic tasks. Firstly, to leave the land in a better natural
condition than before and secondly, to produce a profit while achieving
the first aim.
Farmers are however, judged
on two different criteria by their peers and industry. How productive
and how hardworking they appear are the benchmarks. By changing the
emphasis to the major aims instead of the present views then real progress
can be made.
Using methods such as Whole
Farm Planning, Time Control Grazing, Holistic Resource Management, Alley
Farming, Advance Sowing and Low Stress Stockhandling in combination does
produce exciting results. Not only can the environment start to heal
and rebuild but a better economic bottom line is produced along with an
improved quality of life.
The
predictability of drought in Australia
Chris Barnes, John Sims
Bureau of Rural Sciences
Extreme climatic events are
an inherent risk of agricultural production in Australia, which may be
identified and managed for. Climatic records are now sufficiently reliable
that it is possible to characterise climate variability over the whole
of Australia with a degree of confidence. This information in turn
may be used to plan and manage agricultural production systems, according
to the nature of the variability in any region. Occasionally though, extreme
events occur that fall outside the scope of reasonable management practises
and in such cases it is appropriate, for the long-term maintenance of a
viable agricultural sector, that governments are prepared to provide support.
It is not always clear-cut, however, when such an event has occurred—production
systems are complex as are the risk management strategies applied in different
agricultural regions.
The extent to which it is
possible to mitigate the effects of extreme climatic variations, in particular
drought, depends to a large extent on their predictability. In the
long term, knowing the extent of climatic variability allows a rational
approach to risk management, utilising appropriate instruments such as
farm management deposit schemes. Recent developments have highlighted
relationships between sea surface temperature and climate effects in some
parts of Australia. This has the potential to allow much more active management
of agricultural systems, but is limited in temporal and spatial extent.
Depending on the time of year, predictions in some parts of Australia may
give useful guidance up to nine months in advance, but only for certain
parts of Australia - elsewhere current predictive schemes are no better
than chance. This knowledge is sufficient to design new instruments,
which may further enhance management options for extreme events.
Designing regional frameworks
for 'eco-civic'optimisation of natural resources management across rural
Australia
David Brunckhorst, Phil Coop
and Ian Reeve
Institute of Rural Futures,
University of New England
Summary: The ecological sustainability
of future landscapes and their capacity to support human communities and
resource uses depends on a range of institutions. An important institution
for regional resource management is civic engagement in local affairs,
including resource and land use issues. Local civic engagement has
traditionally been structured around local government. More recently,
attempts have been made to extend this to decision-making bodies based
on river catchments. If citizens are to participate in regional resource
management in ways that are meaningful to them, it is important that both
the landscape units being discussed, and the jurisdictional boundaries
also be meaningful. We have been developing a theoretical base and
associated spatial mapping techniques to explore how boundaries for resource
management regions might be identified. This work is guided by two
considerations that are believed to be important if regional resource management
is to be meaningful to the citizens involved in order to maximise engagement
and investment outcomes. The first consideration is that the character
of the landscape units within the region possess a high degree of homogeneity.
The second is that the choice of management region maximises the areal
proportion of the region that is considered to be part of their 'community'
by the inhabitants. To demonstrate these ideas, we have delineated
a series of nested 'eco-civic' resource management regions for the nothern
part of the state of New South Wales in eastern Australia. It is
hoped that these regions may serve in the future as a common framework
for delivery of Federal and State natural resource management programs.
Rights,
institutions and sustainability - how can we make it work?
Paul Martin and Miriam Verbeek
The Profit Foundation
Summary: This paper is the
result of an 18 month Land & Water Australia research project looking
at what institutional reform is needed to further the cause of sustainability.
The paper provides an integrative behavioural systems approach to looking
at economic, legal and informational instruments, and the institutions
that are needed to make them work. Specific recommendations are provided.
Conclusions: There is a great
deal of attention at present to economic instruments, but relatively little
attention to the behavioural and institutional frameworks within which
they need to operate to be effective. Unless these fundamentals are
given serious reconsideration, the expectations of the present 'reforms'
will not be met.
Paying for sustainability.
Giving back to the Environment what we take out
Ben Wilson
The Johnstone Centre, Charles
Sturt University
The largest and most important
input into any form of agriculture is water. However sustainable water
use in Australia has been viewed primarily from the application end
where efforts are concentrated on irrigation efficiencies and drought proofing
within farm boundaries. Little attention is paid to the supply end
where water storages and supply schemes extract from the natural environment.
Extraction from natural environments links agriculture and nature and both
must be sustained to ensure productivity. A new and simple definition
of sustainability is defined matching outputs with inputs; otherwise the
system will collapse. A system that extracts from the natural environment,
without ensuring a return will deplete its resources and become unsustainable.
More importantly, in a land where droughts are a regular part of the climate,
trying to impose a system of agriculture which does not adequately address
the problems caused by these extreme but common events also cannot be considered
sustainable. Hydrological sustainability on a farm scale is ensured
by replacing water lost via production, with rainfall or irrigation.
But this highlights two problems. Firstly the rain may not fall which
introduces a temporal value in the cycle of inputs and outputs, or irrigation
must come from outside the farm thus spatially enlarging the cycle.
By examining sustainability on a variety of scales and introducing the
concept of sustainability cycles based on water, Australian agriculture
becomes part of society and not just the responsibility of farmers.
|