Progress in valuing native vegetation - changing values, changing landscapes Andrew Campbell Executive Director, Land

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Progress in valuing native vegetation- changing
values, changing landscapesAndrew
CampbellExecutive Director, Land Water
Australia
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Key Points

• Weve come a long way
• Values have changed, we have many new tools
• Community values
• Planning and valuation tools
• But landscape improvement remains patchy, modest,
  ambiguous
• Understanding vegetation in the landscape
• Getting signals right for landscape change
• Pointers to ways forward

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Land Water Australia

• One of 14 Rural RD Corporations and related
  companies - Statutory Authority (PIERD Act 1989)
• research to support sustainable resource
  management
• we buy, broker and manage research, we dont do
  it
• managed corporately, independent Board (CAC Act)
• 12.8m appropriation 35m RD spend (2005-6)
• gt30 co-investing partners (including Greening
  Australia)
• Were in the knowledge business

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RD Programs

• Landscapes
• Native Vegetation Biodiversity
• Agroforestry (through RIRDC)
• Riparian Lands
• Weeds
• Tropical Rivers
• Environmental Water Allocation
• Innovation
• Innovation Call
• Scholarships Fellowships

• Industries
• Grain Graze
• Managing Climate Variability
• Sustainable Irrigation
• Land, Water Wool
• Healthy Soils
• People
• Social Institutional
• Indigenous projects
• Land Water Resources Audit

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Some great products

• Innovative landmark reports on incentives
• Carl Binning, Mike Young Emily Cripps
• Landscape scale experiments - world class
  landscape ecology
• David Lindenmayer et al Andrew Bennett et al
• Major contributions to understanding the ecology
  of remnants
• Jamie Kirkpatrick, David Paton, Sandy Carruthers,
  Jann Williams
• Principles for classifying landscapes managing
  grassy woodlands
• Sue McIntyre Richard Hobbs
• Significant work on economics, perceptions
  values
• Michael Lockwood, Sandra Walpole Carla Miles
  Jim Crosthwaite Bill Malcolm Neil MacLeod
  John McIvor John Cary Kath Williams Suzanne
  Jenkins Denys Slee

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More great products

• A high quality scientific stoush on landscape
  design
• Rob Lambeck, David Freudenberger, Richard Hobbs,
  Sue McIntyre, David Tongway, David Lindenmayer,
  Ted Lefroy and other protagonists
• Groundbreaking work on genetics of remnants -
  Andrew Young
• Wonderful synthesis work on the riparian zone
• Siwan Lovett, Ian Rutherfurd, Pete Davies, Stuart
  Bunn, Ian Prosser others
• Understanding the ecology of the arid zone and
  tropical savannahs
• Jill Landsberg, Craig James, Steve Morton, John
  Woinarski, Alaric Fisher, Jeremy Russell Smith
  and Rod Fensham
• Complementary work on commercial options as a
  partner in JVAP
• Master TreeGrowers - Rowan Reid Trees Water
  Salt - Richard Stirzaker, Ted Lefroy, John
  Williams FloraSearch and the Oil Mallee story -
  John Bartle et al

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Valuing Australian Vegetation

• about 7-10 of total world species
• 30,000 sp flowering plants (85 endemic)
• tallest flowering plants to tallest mosses
• gt300,000? invertebrate taxa (gt95 endemic)
• 1350 endemic terrestrial vertebrates (Indonesia
  next highest with 850 species)
• Centre of marsupial radiation
• 85 mammals endemic
• One sixth of the worlds parrots

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Valuing vegetation

• The grey green mantle of beauty rich and rare
• A profound place in our national psyche
• A fundamental element of Australian landscapes
  and ecosystems
• heritage
• vistas, buildings, struggle, livelihoods
• hydrology
• water balance, filtration, rainfall?
• ecological function
• habitat, pollination, pest control
• carbon

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Valuing vegetation

• A powerful lever in landscape change
• Salinity control
• Water quality erosion, nutrients, rivers,
  floodplains, estuaries
• Biodiversity conservation
• Carbon sequestration
• Private economic goods and services
• Were all here because its so important

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Some history

• Managing Australian Landscapes 1800 - 1950
• Landscapes are socially constructed
• British settlers British farming systems
  (Bayliss-Smith 1982)
• Three broad phases
• Survival - taming the (bizarre unfamiliar) land
  
• Fixing problems
• Increasing production

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Managing Australian Vegetation 1950 - 1980

• Increasing production (wool boom, myxo, clover
  leys, new varieties)
• Improving productivity
• Large scale mechanical clearing
• encouraged by governments
• Gung-ho plant introductions
• Pine plantations on cleared land
• A handful of farm tree pioneers

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Managing Australian Vegetation 1980 - 1990

• Grasping sustainability
• Large scale clearing continues (slows in south)
• Focus on Farm Trees (UniMelb 1980)
• Garden State Committee, Farm Tree Groups (Vic)
• Farm Forestry Loans, TGAS 1977-84
• Year of the Tree, Greening Australia 1982
• LCDCs (WA 82), catchment groups, Land for
  Wildlife (Vic)
• Potter Farmland Plan 1984-88
• Landcare (Vic 1986, national 1989)

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Managing Australian Vegetation 1990 - 2000

• Decade of Landcare, Save the Bush, One Billion
  Trees, Natural Heritage Trust
• Social programs with unrealistic biophysical
  objectives
• changes mainly between peoples ears, not on the
  ground
• Hitting the limits of voluntarism diffusion
• Native Veg, Joint Venture Agroforestry RD
  programs
• Master Treegrowers, agroforestry networks
• Trust for Nature, Bush Heritage Fund, Birds
  Australia
• Proliferation of community groups, plans,
  strategies
• Funding small projects the main game
• Seeds of creative policy (incentives, rights,
  regions, markets)

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Managing Australian Vegetation 2000-2010

• Evolving Understandings
• role of vegetation in the landscape
• ecology of native vegetation
• planning and valuation tools
• the adoption context
• getting signals right for landscape change

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Understanding vegetation in the landscape

• What we know about remnants habitat
• Hydrological realities
• Practical constraints

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Some ecological principles

• Develop long-term shared visions and from these,
  quantifiable objectives and constraints
• Manage the whole mosaic not just pieces
• Patches can only be assessed and managed within
  the context of the whole landscape
• Manage in an experimental framework
• Dont do the same thing everywhere
• Single species/ecosystem management are
  complementary

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More ecological principles

• Riparian Vegetation
• Is ecologically and economically productive
• Is the last line of defence for aquatic
  ecosystems
• Performs multiple functions and is vital for
  terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity
• Without a healthy riparian zone you cannot have a
  healthy river (Siwan Lovett session)

• Amount of habitat is of key importance (but)
• Not all patches are equal
• Start with the best and intact
• Identify disproportionately important species,
  processes and landscape elements
• Manage for change
• Understand the management context
• Expect the unexpected
• Integrate aquatic and terrestrial

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Broader aspects of landscape design

• The contest for rural space
• Water
• Energy
• Amenity
• Commercial possibilities and constraints

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Three big challenges

• Sustainable management of agricultural, grazing
  and forestry enterprises using native exotic
  vegetation
• Protection of native vegetation and habitat to
  conserve natural biodiversity
• Large scale revegetation to help restore
  degrading landscapes and water resources (mainly
  in southern agricultural regions and 400-600mm
  rainfall zone)

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Adoption reality check

• Old adoptability rules still apply (Pannell et
  al)
• Relative advantage
• trialability
• Economic regulatory signals remain weak

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Adoption Issues

• On-farm change is more likely where innovations
• Offer relative advantage over existing
  systems/approaches
• Are not too complex
• Can be trialled, tested and evaluated (preferably
  on a modest scale)
• Fit with the farmers outlook, capacity and
  farming system
• Offer good returns within a reasonable timeframe
• Broadscale revegetation (including agroforestry)
  options in Australia are rarely easily adoptable

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Case study Kikuyu perennial pasture trees
Albany, WA
SGS data from Warren Mason

• A promising farming system?
• Profitability of the existing, annual pasture
  based system 80 per ha
• Profitability of the kikuyu/Bluegum system
  230/ ha (without including forestry income)
• Current system uses little water and leaks like a
  sieve
• The kikuyu/Bluegum system will reduce future
  salinity and improve water quality in rivers

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On-Farm Impacts

• High initial outlay (trees Kikuyu)
• Low groundwater recharge/nutrient loss
• Soil acidification alongside/beneath trees
• Low soil erosion/low run-off/empty farm dams?
• Reduction in broadleaf weeds
• Reduced soil nitrogen fertility
• Much higher skills needed to balance risks

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Off-Farm Impacts

• Reduced salinity risk
• Reduced sediment nutrients to waterways
• Reduced contamination of groundwater
• Reduced erosion of river and creek banks
• More regional employment
• Potential invasion of waterways and native
  vegetation by kikuyu

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Financial other considerations

• Gross Margin 80/ha to 230/ha (150 - 190
  better)
• Other Key Considerations
• High stocking rate required
• Increased need for insect control (RLEM) worm
  control more difficult in sheep
• Improved wool yield strength (diameter)
• Supplementary feed not needed
• Loss of pasture under trees plus long delay on
  tree returns

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Overall Assessment

• A highly profitable system with many NRM
  advantages but higher skills and investment
  needed.
• Pros
• More profitable and sustainable
• Reduced need for supplementary feeding
• Trees provide additional income
• Cons
• Poor winter performance if legume content in
  pasture is low
• Increased worm risk in summer/autumn
• Bluegums can acidify soils and reduce fertility

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Rangelands

• Complex challenges to manage total grazing
  pressure, fire and weeds
• insidious and extensive biodiversity decline
• challenging demography Indigenous others
• best grazing country not well represented in
  reserves
• What biodiversity can we reasonably expect under
  good grazing management?
• How to specify environmental performance?

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Implications

• Current options wont be adopted widely in the
  absence of intense intervention
• It needs to be targeted options by region
  where value stacks up
• New more attractive and adoptable options are
  needed hence the need for research
• Genuine integration with agriculture or
  pastoralism always demands higher level
  management expertise
• Hence good extension and persuasive signals

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Policy agenda

• Best-practice regulation
• Sorting out the planning hierarchy
• Setting minimum standards
• Defining the environmental deliverables
• Striking the right balance between
• Insufficient incentive
• Paying too much for too little
• Monitoring and evaluating impact and ROI

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The public good conservation problem

• Simple in theory balance social equity and
  economic efficiency in delivering defined
  conservation outcomes
• Equity the costs of achieving conservation
  outcomes should be shared fairly
• Spatially e.g. urban/rural upstream/downstream
  
• Through time adequate long term support
  arrangements costs to farmers others of
  managing for conservation are real and on-going
• Efficiency
• Use public funds effectively and at least cost to
  public and private economy
• Minimise perverse or unintended impacts and costs
  of public interventions
• Very difficult in practice (examples showcased
  at this conference)

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The regional model an integrated approach

• The regional model is a world-leading effort to
  implement sustainable NRM at a landscape scale
  its also a grand experiment
• Devolve decision making resource allocation to
  appropriate scale
• Tap into and build on deep local knowledge and
  connection to place
• Work across issues and industries in an
  integrated way
• integration means making whole
• across scales, issues, land tenures and land
  uses
• in the users context
• BUT Developing new institutions takes time
• Old institutions dont necessarily make way
• Lets try to hang on to the good bits of previous
  models
• Remember that on-ground change happens mostly
  on-farm

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Vegetation futures and the regional model

• How does vegetation management relate to resource
  condition targets for each CMA?
• In relation to biodiversity, salinity, water
  quality ( quantity)
• How do these targets/values intersect to devise
  optimal ( practical) investment strategies?
• How to ensure that improvements are durable
• How can regions learn from each other, from
  leading landholders, and from science and vice
  versa?

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Managing Australian Vegetation 2006-2020

• A vibrant native vegetation management industry
• landscape planning, design and facilitation
• habitat management and restoration
• large scale revegetation (integrating commercial
  environmental)
• ecologically informed - viz genotypes, seed
  management
• Durable, clean, efficient incentives regimes to
  support well defined environmental deliverables
• A large private conservation estate
• Well-targeted, well-resourced RD informing
  management and policy at all scales

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In summary

• Our vegetation is a priceless asset
• We know enough to manage it better
• You are all in a dynamic industry that will
  remain a high priority for the foreseeable future
• Delivering conservation and production
  sustainably at landscape scale is tricky
• It requires skilled application of agronomic,
  ecological, economics and policy innovation
• Lets hear from some great examples.

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for more info

• www.lwa.gov.au
• www.aanro.net
• Canprint 1800 776616