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Examination of the values that people assign to specific natural places is likely to be useful for environmental decision-making but is an underdeveloped area of sociopsychological research. A mail survey was used to examine the differences and similarities in values assigned by people to the Loddon River in south-eastern Australia. Environmental, social and economic values were explored across five different community types: urban residents, rural residents, natural resource management (NRM) professionals, environmental group members (EGM) and landholders. While urban residents, rural residents and landholders had similar responses, NRM professionals and EGM placed much stronger emphasis on environmental values derived from the river, and much less emphasis on economic values. Members of two community types (EGM and NRM professionals) responded in a relatively homogenous way, within a narrow range of response options. By contrast, three community types (urban residents, rural residents and landholders) responded in more diverse ways. There were similarities in the social values (historical and aesthetic) expressed by the different community types, suggesting common points for stakeholder engagement in the management of the river. Results point to the need for environmental managers to ensure that consultation is not limited to the most actively engaged sectors of the community, as their responses may not be representative of other groups.

Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are being trialed for Australian agricultural industries as society becomes more concerned about agriculture's environmental performance. EMS is a structured approach used by farm businesses to assess, monitor, and improve environmental performance. Use of EMS in conjunction with other policy tools (such as financial incentives and regulation) in agriculture could enhance management of both on-farm and off-farm environmental issues. Based on the international standard ISO14001, EMS was designed to be applied at the individual business level. However, governments in Australia are exploring its potential to be applied at a catchment scale, among other things, for the purpose of linking farm-level actions to catchment targets. In Australia, governments and catchment management bodies are using Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) as the framework to try to achieve environmental targets set out in catchment plans. In this article, we compare aspects of the EMS and ICM frameworks and comment on the potential of using EMS to achieve catchment-scale environmental outcomes. We conclude that EMS could be a useful policy tool to improve farm management and to contribute, in part, to better off-site outcomes at the catchment/landscape scale. Recommendations on the use of EMS at the catchment scale are discussed. These include using an educational approach for EMS delivery, linking the EMS process to catchment targets, and ensuring catchment targets are realistic and achievable.

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Environmental Management Systems (EMS) have been adapted by different agricultural industries to suit their needs and to align with other requirements such as Quality Assurance (QA). There are stronger drivers for EMS in some industries (e.g. seafood and cotton) than others (e.g. broadacre industries such as grains and livestock). This paper explores the issue of facilitating the wider uptake or adoption and diffusion of EMS in the broadacre industries, particularly through assessing the EMS preparedness of these industries, proposing a staged approach and investigating the compatibility between EMS and QA schemes. We explore these themes, based on the national grains EMS pilot projects conducted from 1999 to 2002 and research within the lamb industry. A four-stage approach for EMS and QA alignment is proposed in response to reviewing an evaluation survey conducted with farmers from EMS groups in the grain and lamb industries and through exploration of the compatibility of EMS and QA schemes. Within the four-stage approach, the ISO 14001 certified EMS is the highest level, with the lowest stage comprising on-farm self-assessment and introduction to the concept of EMS. All stages are compatible with ISO 14001. In exploring the relationship between QA and EMS, we found that EMS and many QA schemes that fully comply with Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point principles such as Safe Quality Food are compatible in their philosophy of continuous improvement. This allows farmers to understand, identify and manage the hazards and risks in their business that might impact on food safety, product consistency and the environment. We conclude, in the absence of market drivers, a low level environmental awareness-raising process through self-assessment is likely to be more realistic for broadacre farmers than more complex systems such as ISO 14001.