1. Managing land for integrated
landscape outcomes
Steve Mathews
16th February 2011
Climate change research strategy for
primary industries conference

2. The story so far…
• Not primarily a farmer – but part of the story
• Biodiversity and landscape conservation
• Integrated landscape management and
sustainable use of land
• Multiple values, multiple uses
• Many different
regions, landscapes, communities, neighbours
• Driven by passion and initially speculative

3. What I have tried to do
• Purchase properties with high conservation
values
• Manage these to protect and enhance the
values, permanently
• Develop a model which pays its way (interest,
management)
• Therefore income generation vital – a range of
options

4. Discuss…
• the enterprise
• the model
• how tracking
• some of the principles
• some observations

5. The enterprise
• 12 properties, many titles
• 5,500 ha approx
• 8 bioregions from SA border to NSW border in far
northeast
• Approx 60-70 Ecological Vegetation Classes
• Wide variety of threatened flora and fauna
• Range from mix of pasture and
bushland, incorporating former agricultural
land, regenerating bush, through to original
bushland

6. Relevance of climate change
• Driving changes in landuse, management and
primary production
• Influences how manage for biodiveristy and
landscape values
• Driving changes in policy

10. Land selection for biodiversity and
landscape benefits and returns
• Size: bigger is better
• Biodiversity values: priority species, communities, assets
• Important contribution to ecological processes
• Proximity to other bush especially reserves
• Connectivity including along waterways
• Diversity of habitats
• Presence of water bodies, including riparian environments
• High in catchment (less vulnerable to influence of others actions)
• Manageability
• Low level weed and vermin
• Bargain
• Resale value
• Landscape based tourism opportunities
• Access to management services
• Adequate boundary fencing with stocked neighbours

11. Maximizing ‘capturable’ biodiversity
value
• align with public policy eg connectivity,
riparian, priority species and assets
• identify where policy supported by incentives
and markets
• hope the policies, incentives, market
mechanisms get it right – do they correctly
identify the priority biodiversity and ecological
assets, and the actions for real gains?

12. Taking a punt – they created a market
• No market for ecosystem services when began – only for
‘bush block’ fans
• Vic govt created a market for public goods
(biodiversity, catchment, carbon) by
- regulation: Native Vegetation Management
Framework (‘avoid, minimize, offset’), s52.17 VPPs
- purchase of ‘public good’ from private sector
suppliers, using ‘tender’ mechanism (eg BushTender)
• Standards needed on actions and outcomes to guarantee
services delivered
- recognized in White Paper, draft Victorian
Biodiversity Strategy

13. Activities undertaken
• Pastoralism
- cattle fattening, agistment, leasing and
sharefarming
- sheep agistment and leasing
• Landscape-based tourism
- rent houses
• Rental (long-term tenants)
- houses
- sheds
• Ecosystem services
- BushTender

16. Have rejected:
• quarrying
- granite slabs on exposed rock faces – rare
species
• timber harvesting
- fenceposts and firewood
- full logging and pulping operations
• grazing of forest and high conservation-value
grassy vegetation
• subdivision and sale for rural residential

17. Under development
• Sustainable forestry
- high-pruned blackwoods naturally regenerating in fields and forest
- salvage of large old trees fallen in paddocks
- plantations of highly durable, engineering grade, fast growing
eucalypts (E. bosistoana)
• Carbon-neutral arts and music festival
- 5000 people
- landscape based
- percentage to biodiversity and landscape restoration, incorporating
biodiverse, locally indigenous plantings for carbon offsets
- opportunities for participation in landscape restoration
• Urban fringe residential development – zoned residential; 50% of the site
into reserve

18. Best project
• 580 acres rare vegetation in East Gippsland
• Some paddock and infrastructure
• BushTender payment over 6 years
• Lease 50 acre paddock (management included)
• Lease shed
• 6 year payback cost plus interest
• Significant capital appreciation (300%)
• Opportunity for future biodiversity services
payments
• Other properties have yet to yield

19. Opportunities – where is it going?
• Ecosystem services payments
- eg biodiversity, carbon sequestration
- incentive and market-based schemes
- strongly supported in biodiversity strategies
- Victoria: BushTender, CarbonTender, EcoTender, etc
• Offsets under NVMF
- price $13,000 – 293,000/hha depending on bioregion
- average price across bioregions ranges from $35,000
to $179,000
- small amount traded to date through BB - 234 hha
(other trades independent of BB)
- this may represent 1000-1500 ha actual land area
protected.

20. Opportunities – where is it going?
• Biodiverse plantings and restoration – eg
connectivity driven
• Destocking – carbon credits for removing or
not running stock
- problem of setting baseline stocking rate:
do you overload the property to set the
baseline higher? Perverse outcome… so
set on assessed carrying capacity

21. Management: setting objectives for
realistic outcomes
What do we use as benchmark?
• ‘Pre-European’?
- do we know really what that was?
- dynamic nature of ecosystems: they weren’t
set in stone
- conditions have changed: hydrology, flora,
fauna, soil
- climate change: may never see the same
climatic conditions again

22. Management: setting objectives for
realistic outcomes
So what do we want?
• Manage to maintain maximum range for future:
- evolution of flora, fauna and biological -
communities in situ
- contribution to ecological processes
- ecologically sustainable economic
uses
- avoid permanent loss of primary productive
capacity (system may slip permanently less
complex, less productive)

23. Management: setting objectives for
realistic outcomes
• Manage for priority species, communities and
ecological process (eg threatened spp, crucial
ecosystem services)
• Review projected climate change in area, adjust
strategy
- eg choose species or communities from
locality with range of tolerances: ‘ecotonal’
cf ‘purist’ approach in restoration, reveg
• Expert assistance vital to get biodiversity right

24. Management: setting objectives for
realistic outcomes
• Revegetation
- secondary to protection of remnants
- assist connectivity (risks eg vermin, fire)
- must be biodiverse and non-weedy, local
- may have to accept lower C-seq
- must assist with priority assets

25. Management: setting objectives for
realistic outcomes
Water
• increased demand for water (flora, fauna, us)
• include riparian habitats, wetlands, swamps, springs, soaks
• avoid plantations, drainage, extraction impacting on these
• include flora and fauna design features in property water
systems
• exclude stock from waterbodies
• dam design to minimize evaporative losses (eg deep,
sheltered, shaded)
• groundwater extraction may limit evaporative losses and
excess groundwater interception cf dams
• manage groundwater extraction so sustainable

26. Benefits for local farming community
• Grazing opportunities for locals seeking feed
eg drought (high price, get their cooperation)
• Employment and income through providing
ecological management services

27. Attitude change
Can contribute to change in attitude towards conservation
management:
• Neighbour One:
- ISO 14001
- fenced all native vegetation, waterbodies and dams;
- stewardship and offset payments for bush;
- now contracting ecological management services
• Neighbour Two:
- BushTender: from ‘wouldn’t do it on principle’ to ‘how do I
get it?’ (more secure, reliable; less risk, outlay,
inputs, and work than cattle)

28. Conclusions
• Opportunities and markets are developing
• Still highly speculative
• It helps if you really love it
• Lots to work out yet –
research, standards, protocols, are actions
delivering real gains
• flexible strategies responding to
research, new knowledge and opportunities
• Requires landscape scale, cross tenure, c’ty