Priority environmental issues for monitoring - mismatch between farmers and catchment management perspectives

Abstract

Monitoring is an essential part of an environmental management system (EMS) if landholders are to demonstrate improved environmental performance. This paper reports results of two surveys to determine environmental issues and priorities for monitoring. The first survey was conducted on 12 EMS pilot projects, and the second on 18 catchment management organisations in Australia. With the exception of pastoral zones, EMS facilitators identified moderate to major issues in land condition, water balance, riparian zone, native vegetation condition and pests. Water quality issues were rated as minor to moderate problems. Issues raised by the greatest number of respondents were water balance problems and weed and pest issues. Catchment managers reported widespread degradation issues in land condition, water balance problems, altered water flow, water quantity and availability and water quality. Degradation of the riparian zone and native vegetation were also reported. Both EMS facilitators and catchment management organisations understood the need for environmental monitoring; however, few EMS pilot projects have addressed it. This was due, in part, to a lack of readily available tools and concentration on the EMS process itself. Tools of most interest to facilitators were soil erosion risk, soil test interpretation, soil structure assessment, soil health, water leakage and perenniality, water quality, riparian zone management, herbicide resistance, greenhouse emissions and energy use. Facilitators also suggested that tools should be delivered in several formats, but workshops delivered by experts were of most interest. Catchment managers had realistic and pragmatic views about the role of landholder monitoring in assessing catchment outcomes and there is a mismatch between landholder monitoring and catchment reporting requirements. Landholders are likely to monitor only what is in their direct interests and this will be mainly on land condition. We conclude that on-farm environmental monitoring conducted by landholders will be of limited use for catchment management organisation reporting. However, it will be very important in helping farmers to make more informed decisions about their environmental management, together with education and support. The issue of catchment condition monitoring and reporting requires serious attention as current monitoring and reporting is likely to be inadequate.

Soil indicators and their use by farmers in the Billabong Catchment, southern New South Wales

“…Although private agronomists may not necessarily be promoting products, they have a greater need in the private sector to provide a service to individual farmers that will ensure a continuance of their employment. Most monitoring by farmers relates closely to farm performance (Ridley et al 2007). Therefore agronomists need to address the direct interests of farmers.…”

Foreword to 'Environmental Management Systems in Agriculture — Diversity and Innovation'

“…Monitoring is a crucial part of EMS which has not been well addressed to date. Reid and Ridley (2007) explore the motivation for environmental monitoring, as part of EMS, by landholders in north-east Victoria, while Ridley et al (2007) assesses more broadly the environmental issues and priorities for monitoring among EMS facilitators and catchment managers from around Australia. They conclude that landholder and catchment monitoring requirements are not necessarily well aligned and this raises issues about evaluating measurable environmental benefits resulting from EMS.…”