Land conservation studies are launched

“I honestly don’t see the conflict,” Ms MacTiernan said last week as she launched the second of the Outback Papers series funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, in Kings Park, Perth.

The first of the series was a scientific report with the second, My Country, Our Outback: Voices from the land of hope and change in Australia’s heartland, reporting on 12 case studies of people and projects involved in restoring or managing the natural environment in outback Australia, including three in WA.

They are the Clinch family on Nallan station in the Murchison region, Ngadu conservation co-ordinators Les Schultz and David Graham who are custodians of the Great Western Woodland country north of Esperance and the Charles Darwin Reserve created in the northern Wheatbelt.

“To me the story of this book is how we can get the benefit of the traditional knowledge of stewardship of the land and combine this with modern, progressive western science to produce something absolutely incredible out in the outback,” Ms MacTiernan said.

“I think one of the great benefits of producing this book is, from my experience, people who are on the land really learn from the stories of others.

“The stories here are from the pastoralists who have determined that they are going to derive economic value but do it at the same time as they restore the land,” she said.

“For the long-term economic benefit, social benefit, community benefit of those outback communities, we have to keep alive the understanding of how we care for the country.

“The message is that we can get much more benefit, on every measure, by careful, responsible stewardship of the land.”

Ms MacTiernan told the audience of more than 150 conservationists, scientists, researchers, pastoralists, politicians, business people and traditional custodians of country, that she was aware “a couple” of pastoralists were concerned by the implication of her launching the report.

“There are still some out there that are seeing this (restoring degraded pastoral lands to a natural environment) as a conflict,’’ she said.

“(To them) this is about groups of people wanting to close down the pastoral industry.

“This is definitely not the case, certainly not the position that we have come from.”

Ms MacTiernan reiterated her support for carbon farming as a means of providing pastoralists and indigenous communities with a financial base to underpin other diversified commercial activity.

Other speakers were Kent Broad, former Mid West region farmer, Murchison pastoralist and founding director of carbon abatement through reforestation company Carbon Neutral, and Dr Barry Traill, The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Outback to Oceans program director.

Mr Broad outlined how degraded areas on Beringarra station had been restored using selected species to provide income from sandalwood harvesting and honey production, while still enabling sheep to be grazed on grasses between the trees.

He claimed the level of carbon farming amelioration in Australia remained well short of national output.

Dr Traill said restoring degraded lands did not mean locking them up.

“If we want to keep country healthy you need people on it looking after it,” Dr Traill said.

Ms MacTiernan seized on their comments and criticised the previous State government’s lack of legislative support for carbon farming.

“I think it is a travesty that we are missing out on at least $100 million worth of potential federal government funding under the Emissions Reductions Fund,’’ she said.

“Whether or not I think it’s a great fund is another issue, nevertheless it is there as one response to climate change and I think it has been really a tragedy that we have not been able to access that $100m because we didn’t have the legislative framework in this state to deal with it.”

In April the Clean Energy Regulator committed to purchase 11.25 million tonnes of carbon abatement at an average of price of $11.82 a tonne on behalf of the Commonwealth.

It was the fifth abatement auction using the Department of Environment and Energy administered fund with 38 projects awarded a total of $133m.

Ms MacTiernan also acknowledged comments by Mr Schultz, who was the local case study speaker, about mining and wild dogs.

“I did note in your story Ngadu, you recognise that mining does play a very important part in these regions – it brings people, it brings skills, it brings infrastructure,” she said.

“Indeed, many communities have benefited from the mining industry supporting (them) in managing pests well beyond the boundaries of their tenements.

“As a really positive story, we are seeing that sort of work being done up in the Pilbara with mesquite control (a fast-growing thorny pest plant from South Africa which grows in thickets).

“(On wild dogs) I certainly am of the view there is a problem, but we must all work together, look at the science (and) look at what is going to work.”

Ms MacTiernan pointed out the government had committed an extra $20m over the next five years to support indigenous rangers on Native Title and Crown lands with discussions held that day with Environment Minister Stephen Dawson on pooling resources for the project.

“There is no doubt there is a strong role to be played here (indigenous rangers) in development of this concept of stewardship of the land, particularly if we can underpin it with carbon farming that will release economic value,” she said.

Ms MacTiernan also pointed to a project on Yeeda station near Broome with indigenous land custodian Anne Poelina and pastoralist Jack Burton to identify traditional bush medicine plant species along the Fitzroy River valley.

“They are using this as an opportunity to grow traditional plants that have this very high value for pharmaceutical and medicinal purposes.

“So there are plenty of interesting opportunities out there,” she said.

Ms MacTiernan also singled out audience members Nicola and Andrew Forrest as “real innovators” and pastoralists “who share that passion for restoring the land at the same time as making it capable of economically sustaining communities”.

More information on The Pew Charitable Trusts’ work in Australia visit pewtrusts.org.au/outback.