Notes from the National Landcare Forum

In late March 650 Landcarers gathered in Glenelg, South Australia to Celebrate, Communicate & Invigorate at the National Landcare Forum.

They heard about the future challenges of Landcare and celebrated 20 years of the grassroots movement that arose out of a unique commitment between the Farmers Federation and the Australian Conservation Foundation.

The Hunter–Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority offered sponsorship to attend which was enthusiastically taken up by Trees In Newcastle, Hunter Region Landcare Network and Wycare.

Over the two days of talks and discussion some reoccurring themes emerged, the need for an intergenerational handover in landcaring, the changing nature of volunteerism, the impacts of Climate Change on biodiversity, water and food production, how Landcare is supported and funded and the place of Landcare in the Australian psyche.

At one end of the intergenerational debate was the recognition that a significant proportion of Landcarers are retirees, have seen the environment change for the worse and are the first generation of volunteers to be attempting to redress the problem.

At the other end of the age spectrum was the fact that Generation Y and Z have never known the environment as good and it has always been on their agenda as well as embedded in their education. For the younger crew the environment is mainstream and there was enthusiasm that theirs will be the first generation to live in a better environment than their grandparents and also that the seed has been sown, and they’ll be there when the time is right.

The changing nature of volunteerism was also covered. Gone are the multiyear commitments to a cause. Shorter, project focussed volunteer spurts have become the norm in a society that is time-poor. Making volunteering meaningful to address local issues by capturing the hearts and minds of the community, making it easy and enjoyable for all, socially stimulating and engaging, with options for personal development, new experiences and learning were some of the keys to successful volunteer projects.

Climate Change impacts and adaptation featured heavily in many of the sessions, especially in terms of securing food production for a projected populations of 36 million Australians and 500 million Asians as part of the 9 billion global citizens by 2050.

Some interesting facts included Australia is 93% self sufficient in food and farmers manage 60% of Australia’s landmass. The role of Australia as a food bowl for the region was emphasised but also the impacts of water security in a drought ravaged country and a move to higher protein diets as Asian economies grow.
Julian Cribb talked of the ‘coming famine’ with acute water scarcity resulting in not enough water to feed ourselves in 25 years time and global food demand outpacing production by a factor of 27:1.

More doom and gloom was shared in the imminent collapse of the world’s fisheries as the ocean’s capacity has now been reached. This raised the interesting follow-on as to how will the protein sources to feed the world be secured when an area three times the size of North America’s landmass would be required to grow the equivalent beef protein…and then there was the talk about algae.

On our doorstep at Eraring Energy Power Station a little project in bio-sequestration is underway where the CO2 emissions from burning coal are being captured from the stack, scrubbed of heavy metals and pumped in to a pond full of microalgae. The algae double their bodyweight in 24hours as they incorporate the carbon into their body structure.

The algae when harvested are an amazing yield. Thirty-five percent of the biomass can be used as edible oil or jet fuel, the other 65% is a high protein, high omega3 product that can be used as a protein meal or supplement, for either livestock or humans. If fed to cows it produces less methane than current food sources and this is good for the environment too.

But there’s more to the algal wonder story, it can also be used as a fertiliser and as a biodegradable packaging (bioplastics), some of the real problem areas that need addressing in a peak oil world.

Micro algae production is being touted in some arenas as the answer to the global food shortage and an achievable option for meeting the 20% carbon reduction target by 2018. China has already put in orders for 1million tonnes/year to feed its increasing population.

There were other talks about the carbon economy, the new world order where carbon is the tradable unit and therefore biodiversity protection becomes economically attractive as carbon is stored not only above ground by also in the soil. There was quite a bit of enthusiasm for the potential of carbon trading and a farmer suggested perhaps a better description of the negatively framed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme might be a more positively orientated Carbon Resource Optimisation Income Scheme, a cross that might be bearable.

And what would a Landcare forum be without meaningful dialogue about what is Landcare? The Landcare visionaries want to see every Australian relate to looking after the land as landcaring. They want Landcare embedded in the national psyche alongside football, meat-pies, kangaroos and Holden cars.

Landcare was seen as not only something people did and did well but it also contained a spiritual connection to stewardship of the land that has resonated throughout the continent for a very long time.