LANDCARE SCHEMES IN AUSTRALIA

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LANDCARE SCHEMES IN AUSTRALIA

• History and nature of the scheme
• A group example in Western Australia
• Landcare successes
• Problems with Landcare

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1. History and ethos of scheme

• Australian National Landcare Program (NLP)
  launched in 1989 to address soil and water
  degradation vegetation management issues.
• unprecedented joint proposal from National
  Farmers Federation (NFF) and Australian
  Conservation Foundation (ACF)
• Precursors
• 1930s-1960s soil conservation groups
• 1970s and 1980s (NSW WA) Soil/Land
  Conservation Districts
• mid-1980s Victoria state Landcare programme

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Australian National Landcare Program (NLP)

• 1990s designated by the Australian Prime
  Minister, as the Decade of Landcare.
• hailed internationally as one of the most
  significant participatory environmental programs
  ever developed (Martin Ritchie, 1999 118).

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• Focus on community
• the idea of community is a fundamental
  ideological construct of Landcare (alongside
  stewardship)
• aims to give communities ownership of their
  problems and control over their solutions
  (Alexander, 1992 14, cited in Martin Ritchie,
  1999119)
• scope extends to promoting awareness of
  environmental degradation amongst the whole
  Australian community, including urban citizens
  and corporations (Ewing, 1996 271)

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Strategies

• Voluntary, group-based participation
• Funding for group formation and facilitation
• tax relief for Landcare works
• State and industry co-funding

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2.The Wheatbelt
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The Wheatbelt
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The Water Cycle and Dryland Salinity
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The Wheatbelt
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Woodland clearance in Kellerberrin study area
Pre 1920
Pre 1940
Pre 1960
Pre 1984
Area of secondary salinity 1962-89
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ii) Landcare Vision and Living Landscapes South
Tammin group (WA)

• Landcare Vision (1989)
• 10 yr partnership between Alcoa World Alumina
  Australia, Agriculture Western Australia and
  existing catchment group
• vision to address soil and water salinity issues
  at farm and catchment scale
• technical advice and funding

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• strategies
• - alley farming stabilised yields in places
• - creek-line tree planting
• - saltbush development alternative fodder
• - self monitoring

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Living Landscapes (1998)

• 5 yr partnership between Alcoa, catchment groups
  and Greening Australia
• aim to address soil and water salinity and nature
  conservation issues

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Strategies

• Identifying farmers shared goals and visions -
  photographic approach
• group selected best images of their legacy,
  health of landscape and interaction between
  agriculture and landscape
• discussion of photos to develop group vision
• Learning by doing - learning about local ecology
  through camps
• encouraged whole family approach
• experts operated in informal setting

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• Expert involvement
• informal learning
• vegetation mapping and bird surveys - given to
  farmers
• Cross-boundary planning
• more coordinated action

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The Wheatbelt
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3. National Landcare ProgramSuccesses

• Group formation
• 1994 2000 groups 1998 4250 groups (Conacher
  Conacher, 2000 296)
• Farmer involvement
• 1998 over 30 of farm businesses (Higgins and
  Lockie, 2002)

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• Changes to attitudes and approaches
• government more open to community involvement
  and whole of government approaches
• landholders more open to group action and
  stewardship ethic
• growth in community group capacity
• Impacts on the ground
• the generation of significant tree planting
• fencing of rivers and bush remnants

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• Changes to attitudes and approaches
• government more open to community involvement
  and whole of government approaches
• landholders more open to group action and
  stewardship ethic
• growth in community group capacity
• Impacts on the ground
• the generation of significant tree planting
• fencing of rivers and bush remnants

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National Landcare Program Problems

• Environmental achievements?
• Uncertainties due to lack of independent
  monitoring of Landcare areas but increasing
  salinity and water problems
• lack of co-ordinated targeting of action on most
  vulnerable areas
• 2000 National Action Plan on Salinity and Water
  Quality

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(No Transcript)
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• Economics
• intensive funding required for projects over long
  term
• tendency for profit neutral adjustments to
  farming systems rather than rethinking of whole
  farming systems

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• The geographical scope of community
• strong rural focus
• allegations of green barrelling from the Labour
  opposition (Crowley, 2001 264)
• concerns from the Australian Conservation
  Foundation that the NHT was becoming more of a
  regional development fund than an environmental
  programme (Crowley, 2001).

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• The social scope of community
• bias towards farmers - non-local
  non-agricultural rural residents less involved in
  Landcare
• amongst farmers less involvement of aboriginal
  groups and those whose first language not English
• feedback of agri-centric values into national
  Landcare and NHT programs

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• Capacities for community involvement
• need for capacity development amongst under
  represented groups and in state agencies
• issues of burn out
• Community and Government
• neo-liberal withdrawal of state (Martin
  Ritchie, 1999)
• advanced liberal state governance (Higgins
  Lockie 2002) but strongly marked by agricultural
  communities of interest (Seymour 2004)
• state, non-local and local stakeholders have a
  role in policy formation, funding, regulating and
  monitoring