soil-conservation-people-religion-and-land.pdf - South West NRM

these four requirements are met, the system will be
sustainable. Initially, it is not necessary to puantify in
any precise way, the acceptable level of achievement within
each criterion, provided the direction and trend is positive.
It is suggested that these four targets are unlikely to be met
unless the initial decisions on land capability (in the left
hand column) are made correctly in the first place. These
concern the fundamental issues of suitable slopes, clearing
and carrying capacity. The central column of the table
represents the elements of the socio-political framework
required for acceptance and implementation of permanent
production systems.
The "ifs and buts" arising from any attempt to crystalize
thinking about a complex situation, must of necessity lead to
qualifications and additions to the "barew statements.
Consideration of how each of the four target criteria can be
achieved indicates how tree planting, wildlife habitat and the
use of fire are incorporated as building blocks of balanced
land use programmes.
COMMITTEE ACTION
The writer has been active in the encouragement and
establishment of many local committees and has followed their
progress with intense interest. Everyone agrees that setting
up the committee is the easy part - the difficult part is
maintaining enthusiastic action within priority directions'
agreed by the group concerned. Our group, the Toowoomba
Erosion Awareness Movement, has consistently emphasized the
complimentary roles of education, incentives and regulations -
in that order, as the three pillars of sound land management
(Roberts 1987). Despite the progress made in recent years, it
must be stated that there are still severe shortcomings in all
three spheres, although the diverse and comprehensive range of
educational materials funded by the National Soil Conservation
Programme since 1983 has given the awareness campaign a
significant boost in most States. ~roup-learning in practical
settings is now what is required on a vast scale.
Committees will continue to have difficulty persuading
many individuals that the available incentives are meaningful
in thei~particular financial situation. The whole issue of
who benefits from, and who pays for, land care now becomes the
major issue for the Decade of Soil Conservation. It remains a
basic truism (Roberts 1985) that if the community at large
regards the landholder as the steward of the nation's soil
resources, then the community should also ensure that the
landholder is given the financial support required to carry
out this vital stewardship role. This is the central land
care issue requiring political realism and statesmanship in
the 1990s. Neither positive attitudes through education, nor
regulatory guidelines alone, can bring about sustainable rural
production systems, if the manager and his family have to
sacrifice individual benefit for the sake of "the common
good" .