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

OTHEREARTH
The Role of Women in Developing Land Stewardship in Australia
- --
The Land Situation
Dr. Brian Roberts is Dean of
School of Applied Science,
Darling Downs Institute of
Advanced Education,
Toowoomba, Qld.
PAGE 42
The need to develop a land ethic in
Australia has been well established
and much publicised in recent times.
There is an increasing awareness of
the need to inculcate in the next
generation, a sense of appreciation
and permanence in our relationship
to our land.
Few today would argue with the
recognition that: (i) we are dependent
on the soil for our future, and (ii) our
exploitation of this land has caused
severe reduction in its productive
potential.
In trying to solve the complex
problems of land deterioration, there
is general acceptance of the need for
a three-pronged attack, namely (i)
community education, (ii) incentives
to landholders, and (iii) regulatory
constraints through land use planning
and zoning.
To reach our national and State
goals in soil conservation and land
care we shall need to use all the
available educational channels
available to the community to imbue
in future generations, the land ethic
and sense of permanent stewardship
so desperately needed in our nation
today (Roberts, 1984).
If we consider the potential of our
various social organisations for contributing
to this education
programme, we can see a role not
only for our schools and our
government advisory services, but
also for community groups, the
church and women's organisations.
Many of us are apparently
unaware of the way in which our
rural production systems are
producing wealth at the expense of
our land's stability and productivity.
It could be said that we have been
living off our "land capital" for
decades. One indication of this is that
our national grain yields have remained
static (wheat at 1.2 tonnes/ha
since 1955) in spite of increased
inputs into the cropping systems
concerned. The most recent overview
of the condition of Australia's land
is given by the Federal Government's
booklet, "The State of the Australian
Environment 1985" (Department
Arts, 1985). The Queensland
situation is summarised by Gillies and
Kame1 (1985). Similar overviews are *
available for other States.
The bottom line to all our surveys
and our soil conservation research
and advisory services is that land
deterioration is getting worse rather
than better. The situation is urgent,
widespread and increasingly costly to
repair as time passes (Roberts, 1984).
Economics and Ecology
We are now all well aware of
campaign of the National Farmers
~ederation to get a better deal for our
rural producers. This campaign is an
important social phenomenon and
has many facets worthy of serious
debate. This paper is not aimed at
evaluating the merits of the case
espoused by the NFF, but rather at
a few basic realities of the present
rural situation.
The writer has dealt with the The first reality is that while the
potential role of the church in a paper emphasis is presently on economic
entitled Soul Conservation (Robens, survival, unless the rules of ecological
1986). The present paper considers survival are heeded, all our efforts
the special place of women in the will come to nought. We have cases
programme envisaged, and calls on of whole communities having to
women's organisations, especially move from their farms, not because
rural organisations, to take up the of economic policy but because
challenge of making a conscious, nature has simply thrown man off.
planned attempt to contribute Soil erosion has reached such an
directly to this crucial community extent that further production just
programme on a nation-wide basis at wasn't possible under the traditional
an early date.
farming systems (Roberts, 1986a).
THE AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATION FARMER