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

B R Roberts
Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, Toowoomba.
Australia is presently experiencing a remarkable change in
attitude toward the land. For the first time in the nation's
history there is not only a widespread awareness of the
communityrs dependence on the land for the major portion of
national production but a realization that land care is a
necessary ingredient for national survival. Lost production
through degradation has been valued at $600 million per annum.
This long-awaited change in man/land relations has the
potential to usher in an era characterised by new community
values relating to environmental concern. This in turn can be
expected to bring new responsibilities and roles for both
landholders and land use advisors in agriculture, pastoralism,
forestry, wildlife management and mine site rehabilitation.
Several organizations and activities warrant identification as
significant factors or steps leading to the present greening
of Australia :
*
1. National Survey of Land Degradation (1975)
This was the first, and to date, the only nation-wide
attempt to estimate the extent and significance of land
degradation in Australia. Published in 1978, it has not
only become the basic reference and source of
quantitative data in all States, but was the forerunner
of the first serious steps to be taken by a federal
government to address degradation problems (Anon, 1978).
2. National Soil Conservation Programme
This federal initiative in 1983 grew out of an increasing
reali .zation of the need to act against the increasing
loss of production potential. The programme spelled out
five prime objectives and provided for direct federal
f undi ng of state and community groups within a budget
which rose from $1 million in 1983 to $45 million in
1989. More than any other single factor, this programme
signa lled the acceptance of degradation control as an
emerg ing issue on the national political agenda.
3. Landholder Committees
The committees, known variously as soil conservation,
land care, land management or land use committees,
started on a large scale in Western Australia when the
state Soil Conservation Act of 1982 formed the basis for
dozens of district or catchment committees made up
I