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CSIRO CORPORATE MEDIA RELEASE 95/60

CALL FOR NATION-WIDE LAND MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Australia's total agricultural land area urgently needs better stewardship, according to a group of leading soil and land scientists from around the country.

According to Dr John Williams of CSIRO's Division of Soils and Dr Ann Hamblin of the CRC for Soil and Land Management, State and Commonwealth agencies and industry leaders agree that past agricultural practices have caused severe damage to Australia's agricultural resource base. They were speaking in Canberra at the conclusion of a meeting of the Prime Minister's Science and Engineering Council.

"It must be recognised that the extent and impact of our land degradation problems are too great for current measures to solve unaided.

"Land degradation is affecting our whole economy through:

• declining fertility of rural land
• diminished water quality
• contaminated agricultural products
• risks to human health
• possible worsening of the Greenhouse Effect
• damaging effects on works and infrastructures.

"We commend what has already been achieved by communities from the Landcare programs, and individuals using various forms of tax incentives and tax relief. However the critical issue is that our total land area needs better management by ALL Australians - not just by a dedicated minority. We are talking about a national problem - one far too big for any single sector to tackle alone, especially the 'off-site' aspects like water quality."

Representatives of CSIRO, the CRCs for Soil and Land Management, Freshwater Ecology and Weed Management, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Landcare, Universities, State Agriculture Departments and farmers' organisations presented their recommendations at the Canberra meeting on Friday.

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