caring for our country

Achievements Report

synthesis 2008 –2013

© Commonwealth of Australia 2013

This work is protected by copyright law. Apart from any use permitted by the Copyright Act 1968 (including research or study) no part may be reproduced, reused or redistributed for any commercial purpose without prior written permission.

The Australian Government acting through the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has exercised due care and skill in the preparation and compilation of the information set out in this publication. Notwithstanding, the Australian Government, its employee and advisers disclaim all liability, including liability for negligence, for any loss, damage, injury, expense or cost incurred by any person as a result of accessing, using or relying upon any of the information in this publication to the maximum extent permitted by the law.

Data included in the Caring for our Country 2008-2013 Achievements Report is correct as at April 2013.

This report may contain images, names of or references to deceased Aboriginal people.

Citation
Caring for our Country 2008-2013 Achievements Report: Synthesis. Independent summary to Caring for our Country, 2013.

Acknowledgements and contributions:
Jenny Boshier, independent author of the Synthesis chapter. Professor David Lindenmayer, Natural Resource Management expert. Roger Wickes, Natural Resource Management expert.The Achievements Report was developed in consultation with a wide range of Caring for our Country stakeholders including Australian Government staff, Catchment Management Authorities, NRM organisations, community groups and project proponents. These stakeholders provided unique insights into how the program has supported environmental activities from a community and regional perspective.

Cover photo credits:
Western Australia Rangelands, Karijini National Park. Source C Zwick, DSEWPaC

Tasmanian Devil joey. Source: S. Graham.

Coastwest, community seagrass monitoring project, Roebuck Bay, Broome, Western Australia.
Source: Environs Kimberley.

Returning crop stubble to the soil, near Yarrawalla, Victoria. Source: C. Burke, DSEWPaC

Sturt’s desert pea, Ningaloo, Western Australia.
Source: T Howard, DSEWPaC.

Kids Practicing Tracks. Source: R. Brittingham.

Summary

This synthesis chapter is part of the Caring for our Country five-year Achievements Report, which consists of six national priority area chapters that explore in detail the achievements of the program against each set of intended five-year outcomes. This chapter adds an in-depth review of achievements, exploring some of the key characteristics, successes and challenges that have been the focus, or have emerged, from the program over the last five years.

This independently authored synthesis chapter has drawn on a number of information sources, including:

  • commissioned evaluations, reviews and research undertaken during the program that focus on particular thematic issues or five-year outcome areas
  • early drafts of the national priority area chapters, drafted by an internal working group of the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPaC) and Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) staff
  • a selection of Caring for our Country project summary reports and project progress reports
  • interviews with Australian Government officials, including staff from DSEWPaC and DAFF
  • input from two natural resource management (NRM) experts (who have also contributed to this chapter)
  • information such as NRM scientific papers, the 2011 and 2006 State of the Environment reports.

It was beyond the scope of this work to systematically assess all investments and achievements associated with the program.

Key characteristics, strengths and challenges

Through the analysis of this information, key characteristics, successes and challenges of the program have been identified and are discussed here. In summary, these include:

People and partnerships are critical—
the individuals, Landcare groups and organisations that were involved in the program were key drivers of NRM sustainable agriculture and biodiversity results.

  • Partnerships with a range of groups and organisations were created to achieve results and these were encouraged and generally succeeded. They included NRM organisations, Landcare and Coastcare, ‘friends of’ and other community groups are central to NRM efforts in Australia.
  • Some projects acted as ‘catalysts’ in bringing together organisations who hadn’t always worked together in the past. This supported delivery of on-ground activities and saw development of relationships that will underpin coordinated efforts in the future.
  • Funding was leveraged through cooperative partnerships with industry, business, environmental non-government organisations and other agencies and groups, which meant that project funding was often augmented, enhancing capacity to deliver.
  • A key challenge was staff and expertise retention in regional areas. Relationships, experience, technical and scientific knowledge and skills are critical.

Integrated efforts and benefits—
Caring for our Country encouraged integrative approaches, which were appropriate given the
scale and long-term nature of NRM challenges:

  • The program resulted in integrated benefits across many landscapes across Australia, such as the Great Barrier Reef catchments, the Rangelands and box gum grassy woodland habitats.
  • Continuity in addressing long-term NRM issues was achieved through the program for some NRM issues.
  • Increasing the involvement of Indigenous people, through the Indigenous Protected Areas and Working on Country Indigenous Ranger elements of Caring for our Country, particularly, had many environmental as well as social and community benefits.
  • A more integrated approach to consolidate on past investments would be supported by the availability of better spatial information on investment areas. This would help prioritise investments and measure impacts over time.

Innovation—Caring for our Country encouraged some significant innovative approaches to address NRM issues:

  • Where innovative approaches have been adopted either in design or implementation, they have proven successful. This suggests the need for the program to continue to foster innovation and creativity of the NRM and biodiversity conservation community.
  • Innovation was generally at the individual project scale and was not well communicated to the broader community.
  • There was some level of program-wide innovation in the approach taken with the Working on Country Indigenous Ranger program, Reef Rescue and moving to an online application process.
  • Similarly, elements of the program and projects that developed innovative monitoring into their design were able to capture new NRM information and to demonstrate their achievements. Innovative communication techniques have also enhanced awareness and knowledge of some NRM issues.
  • The review of the program indicated that there was room to improve when it came to innovation.
  • A more focused and defined approach to monitoring outcomes is needed, as is targeting of innovation and a willingness to accept a level of risk of failure.

A scientific basis for prioritising and evaluating activities and results—Caring for our Country has accessed and integrated best available information to inform investment and evaluate achievements:

  • Information such as species or threat distribution maps, ecological change information and knowledge gained from trialling different approaches to NRM issues was assembled and used to inform some projects.
  • The program has added to a research and knowledge base through investment in relevant research, monitoring and other scientific products.
  • The design of the program—and, through it, individual projects—would benefit from information on the scale of the NRM issue to be addressed. This would support investment decisions made on a stronger evidence base.
  • A continuing challenge for NRM programs is the integration of monitoring and evaluation of outcomes at, and between, the program and project design phase. Doing so would support reporting of longer-term outcomes.

These characteristic successes and challenges were reflected in many of the Caring for our Country projects and the program as a whole. This synthesis chapter highlights a few examples.

At the end of this chapter, there is a discussion on some of the existing and emerging challenges that will be influential for future NRM. The discussion touches on how the first five years of Caring for our Country have engaged with, and helped build the capacity to deal with, these challenges.

Summary of achievements for the first five years

The natural resource base of Australia underpins the social wellbeing of the nation and it is imperative that it is retained for the future. The scale of the NRM issues across Australia, the different land uses and management and the long-term nature of change in environmental systems make assessing progress at an Australian landscape scale a challenging task. Additionally, in assessing the achievements, it is important to acknowledge that they build on previous NRM initiatives at all levels of government and on the efforts of many partner organisations. The production and environmental gains from
Caring for our Country’s first five years of investment are sometimes difficult to attribute without an understanding of this previous work.

Consequently, in assessing the five years of the Caring for our Country program it can be useful to focus on management actions that are expected over time to lead to an improvement in the environmental asset and resource condition. It is also important to acknowledge that the scale of those management actions may not be significant enough to change the resource condition. However, they may slow the negative impacts that would occur without intervention.

Further, assessing the achievements against each of the five-year outcomes is challenging, in some cases, due to the absence of suitable data. That said, there is a range of qualitative and quantitative data and information to draw on.
In some instances, investments made in monitoring during this first five years will not yield results within the five-year window of the program—monitoring results for the Reef Rescue, Environmental Stewardship and other aspects of the program, for example, will in the future provide valuable data and information.

With this in mind, key achievements from each of the national priority areas are highlighted here. All outcomes and their achievements are described more fully in each of the national priority area chapters (available at

National Reserve System

Australia’s National Reserve System and the role of Indigenous management within it have been enhanced:

  • By June 2013, the total amount of land added to the National Reserve System through purchase, establishment and management is expected to be 30 million hectares, with 75 per cent of the funding being invested in land within under-represented bioregions.
  • At 31 March 2013, the declaration of 28 new Indigenous Protected Areas added over 15.6 million hectares to the National Reserve System. It is anticipated that up to eight additional properties may be declared before 30 June 2013.
  • All National Reserve System properties will be managed for biodiversity purposes under plans of management.

Biodiversity and Natural Icons

Investments in this national priority area were diverse, reflecting the complexity of the NRM biodiversity challenges in Australia.

  • As at 30 June 2012, the area of native habitat and vegetation being managed to reduce critical threats to biodiversity had been increased by over 10.5 million hectares. Although the area target has been achieved, there is little information yet on whether the critical threats to biodiversity have been reduced sufficiently for any long-term recovery of biodiversity to occur(RM Consulting Group 2013a).
  • The eradication of rabbits, rats and mice from Macquarie Island is on track and is expected to achieve the long-term goal of restoration of the island’s natural values. Intensive hunting after aerial baiting has found no rabbits since November 2011 (Darby 2012). Early signs of recovery of flora on the island have been observed and birds are returning to breeding sites. Simultaneous eradication of these three pest animals at this scale has not been attempted in the world before.
  • The five tramp ant projects are attempting eradication or containment over areas ranging from 20 to 36000 hectares—a significantly large area in comparison to efforts around the globe. It is typical for areas of 1 to 41 hectares to be addressed. The Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program, as at 30 June 2012, has supported the removal of the infested status of 1488 sites covering 13555 hectares. The number of colonies found at new detection sites is decreasing. These projects are long-term and ongoing.
  • The Feral Camel Management Project, working across three states and the Northern Territory, is on track to reduce feral camel densities near 18 priority biological refugia and high ecological value aquatic ecosystems sites, to the revised target density of less than 0.25 animals per square kilometre. Monitoring data for the recovery of ecosystems following camel removal will be gathered in 2012–13, although there are early indications of biodiversity recovery at some refugia, including waterholes, and of threatened species recovery.
  • The Ningaloo Coast was inscribed on the World Heritage List in June 2011. Preparation of the documentation for the listing was in partnership with the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation. The success of the World Heritage listing and status will ensure the ongoing protection of its biodiversity and other values.
  • The Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, in cooperation with the Tasmanian Government, has made substantial progress over the last five years in conserving the species by establishing an insurance population, investigating innovative approaches to manage populations in the wild, funding scientific research to advance understanding of the facial tumour disease and establishing major partnerships to assist in
    meeting the program’s objectives.

Coastal Environments and Critical Aquatic Habitats

Investment through this national priority area has resulted in significant progress towards reducing the impact of agricultural run-off into the Great Barrier Reef:

  • Reef Rescue is a highly successful NRM program that is on track to meet or exceed ambitious targets to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Reef Rescue, a $200 million component of the Australian Government’s Caring for our Country program, was administered by regional NRM bodies with agricultural industry partners. The objective of Reef Rescue was to accelerate the adoption of improved agricultural practices to protect the Great Barrier Reef from the impacts of agricultural run-off. Over 2000 farmers in the sugar cane, horticulture, grains and cotton sectors and over 945 pastoralists in the grazing and dairy sectors have adopted improved land management practices in the Great Barrier Reef priority catchments. The grants program was supported by funding for partnerships (coordination, engagement and extension activities), monitoring and reporting and research and development.
  • At the industry level, peak agricultural industry groups have worked with regional NRM groups to develop and implement industry-specific programs to deliver grants, assisted in the development of management practice frameworks, provided industry-wide coordination and communication activities and supported cross-regional and
    cross-industry coordination.
  • The size of the investment, the commitment to five years of funding, and multi-year contracts (and ambitious targets) allowed delivery agents to plan strategically and deliver to scale. While there were challenges involved in the rapid expansion of existing programs, substantial practice change could be achieved and this will deliver water quality benefits on a scale not previously realised.
  • The effectiveness of efforts to sustain the environmental values of priority sites in the Ramsar estate was independently assessed as excellent (Alluvium 2013). The assessment was based on the extent to which NRM activities identified and addressed the key threats to the environmental values at these priority sites. Similarly, efforts to sustain the values of priority coastal and inland high ecological value aquatic ecosystems sites were assessed (using the same description) as good (ibid., p. 23). The conclusion was that, whether at priority sites or elsewhere, projects were addressing key threats in most cases and stated targets for activities were achieved in most cases.

Sustainable Farm Practices

Caring for our Country has contributed to the uptake of more sustainable farm practices including no till soil management, conservation of landscapes and protection of threatened ecosystems, and adoption of supporting technologies.

  • An assessment has been made of the adoption of sustainable farm and land management
    practices that deliver improved ecosystem services. An analysis of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Agricultural Resource Management survey has shown an improvement in trend over the period of the Caring for our Country program. The risk of soil erosion occurring through ground cover being removed by tillage has been further reduced by farmers adopting direct seeding technology and improving the management of ground cover and stubbles (Barson, Mewett and Paplinska 2012b). A similar result is occurring in grazing country, where farmers have been increasing the amount of ground cover, although more can be done to bring it up to a target of 70 per cent cover (Barson 2013a). Soil acidification is a major issue in higher rainfall areas and 13 per cent to 23 per cent of farmers are actively managing it (Barson, Mewett and Paplinska 2012c).
  • About two-thirds of Australia’s native vegetation is on agricultural land and about half of this is protected. Over the period of the Caring of our Country program the area of native vegetation protected increased by about two million hectares or 4 per cent (Barson, Mewett and Paplinska 2012a). There was a 12 per cent increase in wetlands protected for conservation purposes over the five-year period, bringing the wetland area protected to 57 per cent.
  • Through the Environmental Stewardship Program, 58000 hectares of private land containing nationally threatened grassy woodlands and other ecosystems in South Australia is being protected and managed for up to 15 years.
  • Over 79583 land managers and fishers in Australia attended events to build their knowledge and skills about NRM through Caring for our Country.

Northern and Remote Australia