"IDENTIFY/PROTECT/AUGMENT/CONNECT" Initiative

“Identify, protect, augment and connect”

BACKYARD INNOVATIONS ENTRY to The Australian/ Shell Innovation Challenge 2014

Plato first coined the now time-honoured axiom, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’, perceiving that a physical or spiritual need or an urgent imperative to solve a problem, is the underlying dynamic that fires the ingenuity and creativity that has spurred humanity’s evolution, constantly adapting to environmental and social stresses and changes .

Arguably, the most urgent imperative of our times is to halt and reverse the inevitable (if not enough is done) downward spiral into extinction of not just single native flora and fauna species, but of entire eco-communities comprising hundreds of unique species.(1)  This problem is global – SE Asia and Africa in particular are experiencing serious biodiversity decline with many apex species already on the brink – it is an unparalleled catastrophe which is doubly tragic as it is almost entirely avoidable with education and targeted social adaptation.

 

It is this imperative, together with the total inadequacy of current piecemeal and siloed governmental approaches, that has inspired me to construct a nationally-coordinated whole-system framework to ‘Identify, Protect, Buffer/Augment and Connect’ all fragmented remnants of threatened eco-systems. The scheme would bring together the skills and resources from all strata of society and encourage broad-scale, wide-scoping education campaigns and on-ground restoration in the public sphere. It incorporates my regeneration innovation which was a finalist in Floriade’s Inventor’s competition (2) and is the culmination of 20 years of dedicated work on the ground that I will continue as long as I am able, researching, developing and fine-tuning the multiple strands of this initiative, that in itself is just a part of the permaculture model I have been working towards, to contribute towards a more meaningful and practical response to collapsing biodiversity.

Identify: This would involve;  creating a computer program to identify particular threatened plant communities from satellite imagery;  engaging local environmental groups such as the SGAP, Greening Australia and Landcare (3) who can provide the plants and seeds, and their knowledge tapped for the locations of such remnants, even of individual plant species;  an education campaign conducted  through state governments, schools and councils, explaining why it is so important to identify and protect such remnants  to save threatened ecosystems.  [Addition:  A Nose for Natives*]

Protect: Once these biodiverse species-rich remnants have been identified, the ownership status of the remnant could then be ascertained. Landholders would be approached with an Information Pack (4) and an attractive, obligation-free offer to participate in the program to whatever extent they wished, possibly linking their remnant with another on a neighbouring property with strategically planted trees to create a corridor. This reverses governments’ current punitive ‘compliance’ approach that has caused so much misunderstanding and division in rural communities, as this approach tacitly implies that their remnant is of great value and it would be in their interest to protect it, without any threatening elements. (5)

Augment: Multiple practical methods such as those detailed in my CNR Report (6) but the main component is an $800 recurring payment (5) to individuals to source locally threatened native flora species and plant them in their backyards and front yards and along roadside verges (7)  Also an $8,000 one-off payment to start-up small-scale nurseries dedicated to local threatened endemic species (that government can use its economies of scale power to provide infrastructure for) and to groups for larger landscape revegetation projects.

Buffering:  This could involve tree/shrub planting of specific natives around the perimeter or control-burning around the remnant to protect it from dangerous wild fires, as Aborigines do to this day around closed-canopy damp-undergrowth forest remnants such as the monsoon thickets.

Connecting:  From small-scale strategic plantings on properties to wide, broad-scale connecting corridors across landscapes (8)  Also re-establishing native vegetation along Roadside where it has been cleared, often illegally, and re-align illegal boundary fences where necessary.

I envisage that this scheme would engender many direct and indirect economic opportunities; at the very least it would provide an economic boost to local businesses, generate interest in and more attention being paid to native habitats, and hopefully give us ‘a new perspective and reason to care’.

 

 

(1)   http://worldatpolarity.blogspot.com.au/p/biodiversity.html - SUBMISSION to HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES INQUIRY INTO BIODIVERSITY

(2)     https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8191464476578542044#editor/target=post;postID=5700723335429454392;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname FLORIADE finalist

(3)     The one requirement with all payments is for the individuals involved to become members of their local Society for Growing Australian Plants – they supply plants and seeds and put out a magnificent booklet each quarter.  Greening Australia – have a great many native plant nurseries - Botanic Gardens also a major source and supplier of threatened plants as is the National Seed Bank Partnership: “Our mission is to create a society where native plant diversity is valued, understood and actively conserved.”  The extensive Landcare network also have numerous native plant nurseries.

(4)     An introductory information pack is designed to engage, educate and entrance. It includes: A topographical map of the district’s various ecosystems showing pre-settlement cover and what now remains with a short, emotive yet scientific discourse on why it is just so important to save what is left;  vibrantly coloured postcards or posters of the locale’s beautiful threatened plants in flower that can be put on walls to work their subtle magic on people’s consciousness;  Paperwork for the $800 Recurring Payment reduced to a minimum with a $2 Quill Notebook – Receipts and bank statements can be stapled at the back with any photos taken and fairly regular notes made of progress in the front.  As soon as the $800 is spent, the notebook is returned to the Department for auditing – if found to be value for money another $800 will then be deposited into their account for this person to continue their good work. There would be a one-year time limit and naturally penalties would apply for misappropriation.

(5)     http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/offtrack/can-a-sheep-farm-be-a-biodiversity-haven/5658898   Conservationist, councillor, PhD completer and farmer extra-ordinaire Mason Crane, was inspired to innovate his farming methods because there is “only 0.5% of this grassy woodland left in reasonable condition.” He sagely comments that “everyone has a bit of green in them”.  

(6)     Cloyna nature reserve report -  In 2003 I received an $8,000 Environmental payment from the federal government, under their Envirofund program, to reforest an area of Dry Vine Rainforest on my cattle-degraded property in regional SE Queensland, and to experiment with a number of reforesting ideas I had.(4) I was required to have that funding officially audited by a local tax agent, which I did, accounting for every cent I had spent on the project. Costs included a wheelbarrow, a mattock, a digging spade, a crowbar, tube stock of hundreds of native trees of that specific ecosystem species, potting them on for four years to sapling stage with a vigorous root ball, planting them out, and keeping them watered and maintained until they were well established and growing normally without any further attention.  From this and other experiences, I learnt a lot about how NOT to conduct a national biodiversity funding program (far too many projects were for barbed wire fencing around remnants to keep stock out), but also how feasible it would be to vastly expand it in scope and vision.

(7)     Costa from Gardening Australia would be only too pleased to help with verge-ins!) Gardening Australia multitude of Information Sheets that apply to this scheme I propose they add an info sheet on Native Bee attraction – all that is needed is a pile of tree logs, a manual screwdriver and a selection of bits!

(8)     For example initiatives such as the Gondwana Link, Great Eastern Ranges, Habitat 141, South Australia Nature Links  and many more detailed in “Linking Australia’s Landscapes – lessons and opportunities from large-scale conservation networks” by Prof James Fitzsimons, Prof Geoff Wescott and Ian Pulsford … “Maintaining and restoring connectivity of native habitats and ecosystem processes to provide for species movement and adaptation to climate change and build social interest and involvement in conservation and restoration.”

(9)   http://workingdogsforconservation.org/  A Nose for Natives by Jen Newlin  Rogue prefers his steak medium-well. But when it comes to sniffing out a rare plant, this dog performs work that’s very well done, indeed. The 4-year-old Belgian sheepdog is part of a Nature Conservancy collaborative project to test the efficacy of using dogs to sniff out the threatened Kincaid’s lupine. The plant is host to the endangered Fender’s blue butterfly, found only in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Using detector dogs for such inventory work is new territory: No one’s tried it before. But since dogs use their remarkable sense of smell to uncover illegal drugs or locate missing persons, why not use them to help find and protect endangered plants and animals? Rogue’s reward for finding the correct plant? That steak. (Or sometimes mackerel.)