Farm sustainability is a term which has been flung around with gay abandon for some years. Landcare groups, particularly those associated with networks, have been scrambling for Federal cash from the Natural Heritage Trust and, more recently, the Caring For Our Country programme.
Now that lucrative funding stream has started to dry up they are squealing about their jobs. That's all it is. They've had little impact on sustainability or biodiversity conservation. Their main concern has been about maintaining and increasing job opportunities in their networks.
Some of the funding has been used for things like erosion control and planting native vegetation but there has been a relatively small return for the hundreds of millions of dollars which has spent.
Has the money decreased the environmental footprint of a significant number of farms? The answer is no. Has the money halted the biodiversity decline in this country? Again the answer is no.
It's not possible to have an impact on these things when huge slabs of funding end up in increasing employment opportunities in Landcare networks rather than being spent on-ground works carried out as part of a 'whole of landscape' plan.
Tags:
landcare, landcare networks, sustainable farming
Posted at: 12:15 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
The Victorian Government has just launched its Land and Biodiversity Green Paper which is supposed to be a document which will improve land management in this State. There have already been clear warnings that Victoria is running out of time to save many native plants and animals threatened with extinction.
Submissions on the document can be lodged until June 30 and it's worth having a good read to see what you think. Many believe that the State Government has a responsibility to protect our wildlife from a combination of habitat loss, weeds, feral animals and climate change at the same time as maintaining productive and profitable agriculture and meeting the growth requirements of an expanding population.
CSIRO figures show that nearly a third of Victoria's native animals and close to half the native plant species are threatened with extinction. Of the 90 Australian animal species already identified as at risk from climate change more than a third are in Victoria.
The Government acknowledges that 'despite the efforts of Victoria’s pioneering Landcare movement, a long history of environment protection legislation and widespread action by governments, businesses and the community, the health of our natural environment continues to decline....
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Tags:
green paper, land biodiversity, landcare
Posted at: 07:55 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
