Clearing vital to survive dry
Farmer says ‘green propaganda’ is destroying her grasslands
RURAL Weekly caught up with fifth-generation beef producer and WWF’s global leader for beef Ian McConnel at the Intensive Animal Industry Conference last week.
Mr McConnel stands by Queensland’s vegetation management laws.
“I think the challenge around the laws is ‘do they actually support the outcome that is needed to support industry?’,” Mr McConnel said.
“The goal of the laws is to protect biodiversity and lower carbon emissions from Australia, which are very important outcomes to achieve. We’re also seeing a very big global movement around protection of forests in the market.
“Next year, 2020, marks a very big year around this topic. You’ve got the New York declaration on forests, the consumer goods forum commitment, as well as the sustainable development goals of the UN goal 15.2, all calling for an end to deforestation in commodity supply chains.
“With that context, it is important to recognise that a healthy beef industry, anywhere in the world, is going to be one that is deforestation free.”
Mr McConnel said vegetation needed to be protected to increase biodiversity, but farmers also needed to be able to successfully manage their production land.
“Most ecologists will tell you, and the data is pretty clear, that species abundance and diversity goes up with vegetation,” he said.
“We have lost more than half our forests in Australia. There is a need to protect what we have left but also a role for farmers to play, and a role for regulation to allow, that regrowth is managed.
“Generally the protections that need to be in place are forests – mature forests, forests that have never been cut down before.”
Mr McConnel said the topic of regrowth and thinning was one of much debate.
“I think the debate gets a little bit lost when we start talking about regrowth,” he said. “Because the ability for farmers to manage and control their grasslands and stop encroachment is still enabled in the regulations, and it’s an important right they need to have to maintain food production. But some of the exemptions that relate to all the clearing of high-value forests in Queensland still do need to be tightened.”
Mr McConnel said to avoid any further deforestation there needed to be a focus on land management.
“Currently, globally we farm no more land than we did 50 years ago. But what we’ve done is leave a lot of degraded land behind us,” he said. “There is enough land falling out of production globally to match what we’re expanding.
“We need to improve the way we manage land so that we’re producing as much food as possible off the land that’s already cleared.”