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

improve the regulatory guidelines to
ensure that unacceptable land use,
such as the indiscriminate clearing of
unsuitable soils for cropping on a
vast scale in marginal rainfall zones,
does not occur in future. Australia
already has a Iegacy of abandoned
land resulting from the unwise
agricultural schemes of earlier years.
While this issue of legislating against
certain land uses is seen as infringing
on the freedom of the individual
landholder, unless specialist advice
on clearing is heeded, governments
may find it necessary to use land use
controls to meet community pressure
to preserve the future productive
capacity of the land in semi-arid
zones and on steep land nearer the
coast.
Figure I. Sequence of processes in grassland deterioration.
until it has reached an advanced
stage. The slow sequential phases of
this process are shown in Figure 1.
2. Recognition or Awareness Era
The pattern of settlement and
consolidation of rural communities
generally moves from the pioneering
era, in which life is often a battle
against nature, to a phase of
recognition that production systems
need to be in equilibrium with the
natural productive levels of the
ecosystem concerned, if production
is to be permanent.
This permanency does not imply
stability in the sense of annual yields
being constant, but rather stability in
the sense that, despite large annual
fluctuations in rainfall, the land
potential is not reduced through overuse,
erosion and salinity.
The recognition phase often does
not eventuate until severe economic
pressure forces a realisation that
unless land use methods (stocking
rate, controlled burning, clearing,
clean cultivation) are changed,
production will continue to decline
despite increased inputs through
breeding, feeding and fertilising.
The rate at which awareness of the
ecological realities becomes an
integral aspect of local community
values, determines largely the
possibility of landholders taking early
corrective action before soil
conservation becomes very expensive
relative to the profitability of current
production systems.
Many regions of Australia appear
to be entering this awareness era in
the 1980's and though the depth of
PAGE 6
Firstly the financial incentives to
improve the land will need
substantial upgrading before many
landholders will not be inclined to
think further than short-term
economic survival.
The financial stringencies which
have dominated the rural sector in the
recent past have discouraged the
development of both land ethics and
the stewardship role of the
landholder.
In addition to the provision of
greater incentives, is the need to
Land tenure and
man/land relations
recognition and acceptance of the
problem of land deterioration varies
greatly between individuals in the
same region, there is no doubt that
most producers are becoming more Much has been written on the issue
aware of both the need to apply of land tenure Systems in Australia.
conservatjon methods and to Most writers concerned about
appreciate the growing expectations conserving the land em~hasise the
of the community at large, that rural advantages of leasehold as a basis for
producers will increasingly be maintaininggovernmentcontrolover
expected to act as trustees and land use through covenants on the
stewards of the nation's food and leases. The negative view of leasehold
fibre producing resources.
tenure is that it does not foster a sense
of permanency and a spirit of
This awareness phase is likely to stewardship characterised by an oncontinue
for several decades and will going commitment to keeping the
be greatly influenced by the land in good condition.
effectiveness of the educational
programmes, from primary to adult The view that the 30-year lease
education on a nation-wide basis. encourages overstocking and
exploitaFion is widely Geld in
3. Conservation or Balanced Land Australia. On the other hand,
Use Era
freehold tenure is generally held to
Increasing the level of awareness is give the owner unfettered freedom to
one thing - doing something about treat the land totally as he wishes,
the problem is another thing. There with no fear of limitations or
are several parallel activities which termination imposed by government.
require positive political support (not Freehold is also considered to
lip service) before the widespread encourage an attachment to the land
implementation of conservative and a pride in handing the land to the
production methods can be expected. next generation in a better condition.
Many countries apply land use
controls even on freehold. In other
words, the State .maintains responsibility
for preventing maltreatment of
the nation's most precious asset -
the land. The basic philosophy of
controls on freehold land, is ;hat the
present owner is but a temporary
trustee, not an end-user; and as such,
he does not have the right to reduce
the productive capacity of the land
for future generations. Such
legislation reflects statemanship and
vision and should not be interpreted
as restrictive over-regulation of
THE AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATION FARMER