National Forum

Official Close

Dr Judy Edwards

I am delighted to be here this morning to give this closing address. But I have to admit that I looked at the program again this morning and I saw that this evening many of you are going spotlighting. For a moment I had a sheer abject terror as, where I grew up, you know how sometimes you revert to your childhood, I grew up on a farm and the word spotlighting meant that you got in the back of the ute with a fair bit of alcohol and a few guns and a couple of torches particularly on a Friday or a Saturday night and belted through the bush picking off whatever you could. I have been to Karakamia at night and I know the spotlighting that you are talking about and I am sure that you will really enjoy it. It won't be anything that my primordial urge made me shudder about.

The recently released National Land and Water Resources Report predicted a startling future. The area of farmland lost to dry land salinity will treble across Australia by the year 2050. In Western Australia, as many of you know, we are facing an increase from 4 million hectares to about 8.8 million hectares of farmland lost to dry land salinity. In addition, 2 million hectares of native vegetation will be lost to salinisation resulting in the disappearance of a range of ecosystems and plant communities such as the red Morrell woodland in the WA wheatbelt. I am a bit biased as I grew up there, which is why I am talking to you about it. Salinisation has also impacted on infrastructure in towns and it is adding enormous economic and social pressures to communities that are already experiencing a range of other stresses. So this creeping natural disaster represents a considerable threat to our unique biodiversity, which is the essential natural capital for this generation, but in particular for future generations. The situation is made even more compelling when we realise that many plant communities occur primarily on private land and that they are poorly represented in the conservation estate. In the Avon wheatbelt region, less that 2% of the original vegetation exists in the conservation reserve system. So governments alone cannot address this loss of bio-diversity and the ongoing damage to hydrological function that is still occurring in these areas. Only by working cooperatively with all sectors of the community can we start to tackle this problem and hope to avoid or limit some of the outcomes that are predicted. It is clear therefore that private land conservation has an important to role play in addressing these major environmental problems and this national forum has provided a very sharp focus to look at the work that has been done to date, but probably more important, to shape the future that we are all working towards. I know I can't imagine that this forum would have happened a decade ago, five years ago, perhaps even a couple of years ago and it is a tribute to the work that you are doing, and to the organisers who have brought people together, that we have been able to discuss these issues.

So this challenge that we face can only be met through the combined action of the landowners, all levels of government, the non-government sector and the business sector. There is also an extremely important role that I know in Western Australia that we have sometimes overlooked, for indigenous communities in land conservation.

In Australia nearly 1 million hectares of private land has been committed to conservation through covenants or equivalent legal arrangements excluding land management in programs like the Land for Wildlife scheme. The fact that such a large area has been put to this purpose in the last 10 years shows there is an increase in willingness to undertake this, and I commend the efforts of the non-government organisations in particular: the Australian Bush Heritage Fund, which has been very exciting, organisations like the National Trust here in Western Australia and Greening Australia. Other ones such as (the list is rather long) local government and individuals who have helped facilitate this change and I also do commend to you the Paruna and Karakamia Sanctuaries which some of you will have the opportunity to visit later on today.

This interest in private land conservation has coincided with, or possibly resulted from, a change in emphasis away from locking what is valuable, to a more holistic view where we look outwards and see how we preserve it but continue to look into the future. We are now seeing a greater strategic use of private land conservation tools to address the common goal of bio-diversity conservation.

The range of topics that you have been through is absolutely fascinating reading and I am delighted to have met some of the presenters and participants. You have gone through every conceivable aspect of nature conservation on private land including facilitating philanthropy. I think an opportunity is there, but we have to work out mechanisms that make sure that we deliver in both getting the money and then communicating and getting the outcomes. We have also seen in Western Australia, for example, how work has been done to engage in the real estate sector again, a really important sector in achieving our common goals. I have also been pleased to hear of the work of indigenous and non-indigenous communities looking at land conservation. I give us an example the workshop conducting by Carl Binning on non-government trusts. That is something that I look forward to having further discussions with Carl about and I think that

Judy's suggestion from the last idea of another forum in another year is an excellent idea to put pressure on all of us in government to be moving towards the goals that you are showing we should be setting.

Many of the items mentioned in the program talk about incentives, the incentives that need to be provided for private land, owners to be conserving their land but I also think that government needs to pay more attention to the disincentives and that we need to remove those. So I will be having those discussions with my colleagues.

All of the issues that have been raised are appreciated by government and we look forward to working with all of you through all the organisations and communities that you represent to then talking to our government colleagues across Australia to make sure that we start to implement what you are putting forward. This is a very big challenge, but it is a challenge we have to front, if we are to leave the children, and their children who follow us, the bio-diversity heritage that they deserve.

So in conclusion, I wish you all the best for today, good luck and I hope you find what we are/have to show you in Western Australia very exciting. In conclusion, happy spotlighting, in the way that spotlighting should be done.

Thank you.