Dryland salinity programme helps South East farmers

In an innovative scheme in South Australia's Upper South East region, farmers are making economic gains by permanently setting aside areas of native vegetation for conservation.

In 2003 the Australian and South Australian Governments jointly agreed to provide $38.3 million under the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP) to complete phase three of the Upper South East Dryland Salinity and Flood Management Programme. This funding was conditional upon regional landholders contributing $11 million through a compulsory levy.

To assist landholders in meeting this cost, a scheme was developed whereby farmers with healthy areas of native vegetation on their properties could put them aside under a long-term management agreement, or conservation covenant. This could then be offset against their levy payments.

Activities

Darren Willis, Environmental Manager of Upper South East (USE) Programme said those farmers who have become involved have found the scheme very rewarding.

"In essence, farmers are able to meet their required contribution to the USE Programme in kind rather than in cash," he said. "Management agreements finalised to date have resulted in offsets of between $5000 and $40,000, so the financial benefits can be quite significant.

"Each agreement involves the development of 15-year management plans so farmers also get ongoing technical support on how to manage areas of native vegetation. This includes weed control and management of grazing stock."

Darren said one of the issues encountered early in the scheme was how to place an economic value on different areas of native vegetation, which can vary widely from property to property. So they developed an index for valuing native vegetation - the Biodiversity Significance Index Score.

"The amount of financial incentives offered to farmers is based on their Index Score. This takes into account how rare the vegetation is, the health of the habitat, its size and also how close it is to other similar ecosystems," he said.

"The Upper South East is blessed with more original native vegetation than most other parts of South Australia, but we have lost almost 20 per cent over the past 20 years. Our goal is to protect 64,000 hectares of native vegetation that is not currently under some form of covenant."

Management agreements are not limited to the levy offset scheme, which is part of the broader Biodiversity Conservation and Enhancement Project. Through this scheme $17.15 million is being provided over five years through the NAP to identify and protect important habitat areas. Landholders with priority areas of native vegetation can then be offered financial incentives to place the areas under management agreements.

"While some farmers have been cautious about such a new and different initiative, those who have signed on are very supportive of the work we are doing," Darren said.

More information

1. Darren Willis, SA Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation Environmental Manager: (08) 8303 9572 or willis.darren@saugov.sa.gov.au
2. USE 

Australian Government NRM Team
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601 Australia
1800 552 008 (toll-free)

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Caring for our Country is an Australian Government initiative jointly administered by the Australian Government departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts