Landcare groups - the community response

In Western Australia, priority is given to achieving land conservation through organised groups of landholders who share responsibility and combine their resources on a community scale. This we call 'community landcare'; and it is based on several important principles:

• Land holders will change more quickly and effectively to sustainable land use if they do so voluntarily rather than by regulation;
  
• Landholders will be more committed to these changes if they have the major say in what is to be done, rather than 'being told' by the Government;


• Landholders learn more and are influenced to change by others in the same industry or in the same community;


• Because land degradation problems are most often on a catchment scale, all land users in the area must cooperate in a common solution; and


• The 'pooling' of effort and resources will lead to a better solution than individual landholders 'doing their own thing'.

In this State, we have two levels of organised groups. They are Land Conservation District Committees and Catchment Groups.

What is a Land Conservation District?

A Land Conservation District is basically a group of people, mostly farmers (usually a whole shire), who want to do something about the land degradation in their area. They are a community group; often other members are local council representatives, Government officials, other landholders and persons with community and land conservation interests.

Each group, or District as it is known, has a committee that meets to plan and organise the land conservation programme. The Districts, and their committees, are formally gazetted under the Soil and Land Conservation Act 1982. The Commissioner of Soil and Land Conservation has a representative on each committee.

It makes sense that they be called 'Districts', since each is concerned with a certain area (for example, a shire or catchment). Being Australian, 'Land Conservation District' was quickly abbreviated to 'LCD'.

What is a Catchment Group?

Catchment groups normally consist of between ten and forty neighbouring farmers who share a single catchment, cooperating in a planned approach to tackling salinity, water erosion or other problems associated with land degradation. Some smaller Land Conservation Districts are an entire catchment group. Other Land Conservation Districts are much larger and have one or more catchment groups within their boundary.

Over 150 Districts have an active catchment group. Growth in the number of Land Conservation Districts is expected to continue until all of the State is covered.

The first Districts started in 1982, but more of them have been formed. Their size ranges from a few thousand hectares (for example, Carnarvon or Mogumber) to tens of millions of hectares in the pastoral region (Kalgoorlie or Wiluna).

Some 90 per cent of pastoral landholders and 70 per cent of agricultural landholders are within Land Conservation Districts, but not all would recognise this nor be involved. Some Districts have the support of every farmer.

What do they do?

Land Conservation Districts are made up of people who do what they can to improve the management of land in their area and combat land degradation. This generally means they coordinate the efforts of all landholders in a catchment or local area to prepare whole catchment and farm planning; to do research; to demonstrate sound land management practices, to monitor their progress; to promote high water using farming systems; and to promote awareness of land degradation problems in their area.

Foremost is the belief that farming must remain viable in the long term, without causing degradation of the land on which it depends.

Typically, Districts might purchase and then hire out to local farmers, equipment such as a tree planter or Mallen Niche Seeder. This brings members into greater contact with farmers in their District.

In every catchment

Where a District has the support of most or all of the farmers within its boundary, there is the potential for tackling the really big problems in land degradation, such as developing overall catchment plans for new farming systems, high water using systems, controlling run-off and water conservation. There are a growing number of Districts with such support.

A catchment plan coordinates the individual efforts of farmers and the works on their farms, for the benefit of the whole catchment. It takes time and persistent effort. The momentum for this work must come from a majority of landholders in a catchment if the plan is to be effective. The attitudes of landholders may change dramatically along the way, and it is not all 'plain sailing'. Many Districts around the State are now helping catchment groups to develop long-term plans for new farming systems in their catchments, with the support of all the farmers involved.

Everyone can join

Land Conservation Districts need the support of the whole community. Land degradation is not only a farming problem. Urban dwellers, too, change the land and waters in many ways, by clearing precious natural bush, using fertilisers that leach from gardens, or, by their holiday activities, affecting fragile coastal dunes.

Land degradation is Western Australia's largest environmental problem. It cannot be fixed in a year, but by working together, the community and Land Conservation Districts will make some real achievements in this decade.

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