Cattle grazing is a vital enterprise in rangelands and tropical savannas.

Sustainable rangelands and savannas

Challenges, capabilities and locations

Overview

The rangelands and tropical savannas account for more than 70 per cent of Australia's land surface and include a diverse group of ecosystems relatively undisturbed by human activity.

These landscapes are found in areas where the rainfall is either too low or too variable for dryland crop production. As a consequence cattle or sheep grazing is the major agricultural practice but there are also other major land uses including:

• mining
• indigenous land management use
• tourism
• conservation
• defence.

CSIRO's Rangelands and Savannas Research Program is undertaking research that incorporates economic, ecological and social factors and aims to contribute to better planning, use and management of rangeland and savanna systems.

Challenges in the rangelands and savannas

Unlike much of southern Australia's agricultural zone, the rangelands and savannas are still relatively unmodified by contemporary land uses. They also contain significant components of Australia's biodiversity.

However, these landscapes are facing increasing pressures for their further development, with challenges coming from long-term land uses like pastoralism, and newer activities such as tourism, bush produce and urban growth.

Some regions, such as central Australia, are creating new opportunities by refining the way arid zone industries operate but there are challenges in ensuring these desert economies are sustainable.

There is growing pressure to use more of the water resources in northern Australia for more intensive agricultural production, however research will be needed to ensure further development is achieved in a sustainable manner.

Invasive plants and exotic pest animals are another issue both for sustainable land management and biodiversity conservation.

The region, already characterised by wide climatic variation, needs to consider management strategies incorporating potential future climate change scenarios.

Tropical savannas and woodlands also play an important role in Australia's greenhouse gas inventory via emissions from fire and livestock and in carbon storage in woodland vegetaion and soils. These environments are also a large store of Australia's terrestrial carbon and they play an important role in Australia's greenhouse gas inventory via emissions from fire and livestock, and in sequestration in woodlands and soils.

Indigenous lands account for extensive areas of the rangelands and savannas, and indigenous people living in remote communities face various challenges of developing economic opportunities while maintaining cultural values.  Opportunities may arise through natural resource management activities such as fire management, pest animal and plant control and care of riparian areas, as well as through industry development.

CSIRO's research activities in arid rangelands and tropical savannas are addressing these issues by investigating opportunities and researching options to maintain the future sustainability of these harsh but important environments.

Research capabilities

Our research covers a range of disciplinary areas and as a result, our capabilities are broad and include:

• animal nutrition
• biodiversity conservation
• cultural geography and social dynamics 
• ecological and economic modelling
• integration of indigenous management and values
• invasive species management
• pasture and grazing systems
• plant, animal, and landscape ecology
• remote sensing and GIS.

Locations

While our research has a national charter, our emphasis is on the sustainable management of rangeland and savanna systems in central and northern Australia and our staff are based within and surrounding these regions at laboratories in:

• Adelaide
• Alice Springs
• Brisbane
• Darwin
• Townsville.

Locating staff within or near to arid rangeland and tropical savanna regions enables them to better develop a first hand understanding of the environmental, social and economic settings of their research.