Current Issues

The rangelands, their communities and industries are experiencing an unprecedented rate of change. These changes have resulted in a number of challenges facing rangeland regions and their industries...

Mining

Mining's value of $12 billion each year is relatively constant when compared with the climatic dependent other industries in the rangelands.

Mining is important for indirectly providing infrastructure for community development and directly for sustaining communities in the rangelands through the provision of employment and other contributions to the local economy.

While exploration and extraction activities require environmental management and rehabilitation, the mining industry has positively contributed to the maintenance and rehabilitation of rangelands through programs such as Landcare.

Links:

Minerals Council of Australia -
www.minerals.org.au

Department of Industry, Tourism & Resources-
www.industry.gov.au

CSIRO Exploration & Mining -
www.dem.csiro.au

Association of Mining Companies Inc. -
www.amec.asn.au

Australian Industry Greenhouse Network -
www.aign.net

Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association Ltd -
www.appea.com.au

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Tourism

The importance of tourism in rural and regional areas is increasing as communities search for new and innovative ways to diversify and increase revenue streams. This has been dramatically boosted by the Year of the Outback celebrations and television documentaries and series.

Tourism's annual value in the rangelands is estimated at $2.06 million (NLWRA, 2001).

Tourism has the potential to:

• Increase and diversify employment opportunities
• Even out labour and income seasonality
• Stimulate the economy, especially for small business
• Educate the broader community about rangelands issues
• Promote and protect cultural and heritage assets

Ecotourism, or nature-based tourism, is an emerging global industry and will play a major role in the future use of the rangelands. Ecotourism involves education and interpretation of the environment to promote ecological sustainability through retention of environmental integrity.

Links:

Biodiversity, Conservation & Ecotourism -
www.erin.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/series/papers

Ecotourism Australia -
www.ecotourism.org.au

CRC Sustainable Tourism -
www.crctourism.com.au

Outback Queensland Tourism -
www.outbackholidays.info

Desert Knowledge CRC -
www.desertknowledge.com.au

Outback Beds
www.outbackbeds.com.au

Flinders Ranges & Outback Tourism
www.flindersoutback.com.au

Gulf Savannah
www.gulf-savannah.com.au

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Education

To manage the rangelands for a sustainable future, high quality and relevant knowledge and skills are required in a user-friendly and accessible form for our rangeland managers and those that support them, such as advisers, landcare and natural Resource Management facilitators, and researchers.

While there are a variety of courses currently available at different levels, very few specifically relate, and are relevant, to the rangelands.

Despite the significance of the rangelands, access to learning opportunities is limited, and participation rates in TAFE and university courses are half that of metropolitan Australia.

There is also a widely expressed need for comprehensive programs in rangeland management, more aligned with the education and training needs of the stakeholders and the people who will be managing the future of our rangelands, and delivered in a flexible manner to overcome the barriers of distance and isolation.

Links

Rural Skills Training and Research (House of Representatives Inquiry)
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/primind/ruralskills/report.htm

Researching Capacity Building in Rural Australia
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/capacitybuilding/

Capacity Building in Rural Australia
http://www.regional.org.au/au/apen/2006/refereed/5/3269_mckenziej.htm

Industry Capacity Building Initiatives
http://www.daffa.gov.au/agriculture-food/aaa/ipp/icb-initiatives

Extension/Education Project Database
http://www.couttsjr.com.au/pd/

Improved Tertiary Education is … High Priority
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/shortreps/sr30.htm

Educating Farmers after School
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/media_releases/2jun98.html

Education and Training in Regional Australia
http://www.dotars.gov.au/regional/forum/summit/back_sub/background_papers/pdf/chudleigh_paper.pdf

 

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Sustainability

Australia's Rangelands have special management needs to simultaneously handle increasingly complex and potentially competing challenges such as biodiversity, pastoral production, water resources, salinity and tourism.

Balancing these needs for multiple use requires current information that's relevant for decision-making. Such information can be delivered through education and training, and especially if the learning activities apply the information in a local context.

A relatively small number of people make decisions that influence natural resource management over this large area. According to the National Land & Water Resources Audit (2001), people managing and using rangelands include:

• Land administrators
• Public land managers
• Pastoralists
• Indigenous land managers
• Mining managers
• Township communities

Tourism operators, catchment groups, the Australian Defence Force and government also make decisions that may impact on natural resources and rangeland people.

Increasingly, international conventions (e.g. biodiversity, Kyoto protocol, desertification, wetlands) and international market fluctuations can also influence the rangelands and its future.

Links:

Environment Australia -
www.erin.gov.au

Australian Biofuels Association -
www.australianbiofuelsassociation.org.au

Global Sustainability @ RMIT -
www.global.rmit.edu.au

Ecosustainable Hub -
www.ecosustainable.com.au

Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry - Australia -
www.daff.gov.au

Landcare Australia -
www.landcareaustralia.com.au

Institute for Sustainable Regional Development -
www.isrd.cqu.edu.au/isrd/home.htm

CSIRO Sustainability Network -
www.bml.csiro.au/sustnet.htm

 

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Biodiversity

Because of its geographic isolation, a high proportion of the estimated 500,000 Australian species occur nowhere else in the world. Australia is one of only 12 megadiverse countries which altogether harbour between 60 and 70 per cent of the world's known species.

The rangelands contribute significantly to Australia's range of unique and diverse native plants and animals.

The native vegetation of the rangelands is largely intact, however, to maintain this level of biodiversity requires management of a number of variables such as invasive weed species, feral animals, grazing pressure, protection of endangered species, water sources and systems and salinity.

A future challenge is integrating biodiversity with pastoral production and other industries.

Australia is developing an export and domestic product status that integrates food quality with efficient production and sustainable natural resource use. This is commonly referred to as "clean and green". Sustainable production systems will be an increasingly important priority for Australia's rangelands.

Links:

NLWRA: Report on Monitoring Biodiversity in the Rangelands -
www.ea.gov.au/ANRA/rangelands/docs/project.html

CSIRO Biodiversity -
www.csiro.au/index.asp?type=sector&id=Biodiversity

Assessment of Biodiversity in the Rangelands Using Remote Sensing -
www.ea.gov.au/land/nlwra/condition/rangelands

Queensland Conservation Council -
www.qccqld.org.au

Australian Conservation Foundation -
www.acfonline.org.au

Environment Australia -
www.ea.gov.au/biodiversity

Biodiversity, Conservation & Ecotourism -
www.erin.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/series/papers

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Water

(Under development)

Population Trends

(Under development)