STOP PRESS: "Green Farmers" to be paid for being Green

They're talking billions of dollars to be placed in the hands of Green Farmers to help protect and recover degraded landscapes in the 60% of Australia's land mass managed by farmers. If only they understood the soil carbon sequestration story, the government would know they can get industrial polluters to pay for conserving natural resources in the bush.

The Australian reports this week that even more money is needed to deal with intractable land degradation than the $4.4billion already spent by the Howard Government, according to a report into the Natural Heritage Trust and the National Action Plan on Salinity. The report found the programs fell short in dealing with farm areas needing structural adjustment.
The sustainable use of natural resources by agriculture is a key objective of both programs.
The report said areas with intractable problems, such as severe degradation from past land management policies, would need ``significant investment in innovative approaches and cost-sharing arrangements beyond current levels of investment''.

At the same time this week the Financal Review reports that the federal government is launching a scheme to provide taxpayer assistance to farmers who make environmental improvements to their land. "The incentives - which may be in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars - are an attempt to allay growing anger in the bush about the burden of environmental regulations," said the report. Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said they would result in an increase in long-term productivity. "The environmental aim might be to revegetate a waterway, repair some gully erosion, protect a wetland, or maintain some remnant native vegetation. It could be a lot of things, but the aim would certainly be to use our money in a way that helped farmers maintain or improve productivity for the long term, in return for long-term environmental protection."
To start the ball rolling, $2 million was announced for a number of pilot projects. "I want to see a broader use of incentives come into play in the next phase of the government's natural resource management programs, from 2008 at the latest", Mr McGauran said.

(SEE THE DIARY OF A CARBON FARMER for the Green Farmers Manifesto - http://envirofarming.blogspot.com)