Download Environmental Score Card

Prepared by Jackie Bowe, Southern New England Landcare 19/10/08
Environmental Sustainability Score Card
Strengths
Qu: “What are the environmental strengths of the NESAC region in terms of
sustainability?”
Social Capital
 Community attitude / high level of environmental awareness amongst general
community
 Community attitude / high level of environmental awareness amongst farmers
 Willing group of people doing remedial and progressive works
 Strong and functioning Landcare network
 Community capacity demonstrated with response to euc dieback
 Groups doing remedial work and progressive agricultural practices
 Lots of community groups in diverse areas- high social capital
 Cultural diversity of population – access to outside ideas
 4 council’s cooperating
 NESAC colaberation with UNE, eg Malpas dam,
 NESAC are engaged in climate change adaptation process
 ADC are committee to low emission cars
 UNE and it’s CRCs, particularly National Greenhouse Gas Research Centre
 Progressive schools
 Culture, music, drama help raise awareness of environmental issues
 Linkages, networks in community
 Political clout with independent reps
 Expertise, desirable place to live so can attract expertise
 Long history of environmental problems eg dieback to alert the community to
environmental issues
 Tree-changers some have an aim to protect natural values
 UNE, ability to retain younger people
 Partnerships developed between landcare/government and land managers
Natural, geographical and infrastructural
 Not under threat from rising sea waters – worthwhile investing here
 Cool climate in warming world
 Sun light
 Less climate change impact forecasted for this region
 Water storage
 ADC is top 5 in the State for recovery of recyclable materials from domestic waste
and 65% of waste is recycled
 New waste technology about to be introduced at ADC to minimise GG emissions
 50% of town water currently re-used for stock fodder production
 Functioning population hubs (size of Armidale, Uralla Guyra etc.)- large enough to
have all requirements
 Small town, can cycle, don’t need car
 Higher rainfall rate than most of NSW
 Reasonable fertility and productivity of the landscape
 Opportunity to feed ourselves- capacity for vege gardens etc.
 2600 plant species
 Health of waterways still relatively healthy
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Still have native grasses
Large wilderness areas, long history of national parks, extensive stock route
network with important woodland and wetland communities
Natural areas on private farmland
Wilderness corridors on public and private land
Prevailing landuse (grazing) is not too destructive, eg no known coal
Weaknesses
Qu: “What are the environmental weaknesses of the NESAC region in terms of
sustainability?”
Social
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Violence issue- social capital
Island philosophy needs to be overcome (Armidale working in isolation)
Lack of employment opportunities
transient population of UNE - not committed to the region
Capacity of farmers to look after land – aging demographic, not profitable,
corporate farms
 Lack of interest and understanding of fire regimes among landholders
 Complacency and disincentive to conserve water due to large town storage
 Climate change scepticism
Natural, geographical and infrastructural
 Poor housing stock (lacking energy efficiency)
 Distance from other population centres
 Lack of transport options
 Long history of landuse, a lot of clearing and very little pristine areas on productive
land types
 We are possibly in a lag period of extinctions, too late, damage is done
 Low diversity of primary industries
 Beef is energetically inefficient as a food source
 Seasonal / climatical constraints for food production
 Mechanisms for methane abatement in the livestock industry are undeveloped
Government
 Low population results in low revenue for council
 State Native veg legislation - too many loopholes
 Withdrawal of State Gov field officers in soil and veg conservation, environmental
protection and agriculture
 ADC Lack of green direction/vision
 Government planning codes (eg recent retail developments lacking green design)
 No incentive to manage private native forests sustainable
 NESAC councils have not sincerely taken on the responsibility for the threatened
species legislation
 RLPB has no environmental management objectives or strategy
 NESACs ability is limited in terms of driving the sustainability strategy, will always
have local gov, narrowed perspective
Opportunities
Qu: “What are the environmental opportunities of the NESAC region in terms of
sustainability?”
Natural, geographical and infrastructural
 On-route between Sydney and Brisbane
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 Train lines - more trains, convert to cycle walking tracks
 Intra city busses, more utilisation of school buses
 Better cycling facilities
 Council has role to protect natural areas managed by them
Business, primary industries
 Probability of Armidale growing, bring economic prosperity
 Generally prosperous region - can afford to invest in the environment
 "Engineered woodland" model of landuse combining reforestation with grazing,
biodiversity, carbon sequestration and timber harvesting value
 Well managed private native forestry
 Cleared lands opportunity for carbon sink plantings
 NESAC region could be a leader in sustainable industries, research link to local
industries
 Develop solar, wind and water power generation
 Ecotourism Council can promote our natural attractions
 Recreational opportunities locally, less need for flights
Social
 More foot busses
 Ground swell on soil health interest
 Segment of community that could easily engaged in heritage and environmental
sustainability
 More community awareness of species decline
 More community engagement in state of the environment monitoring,
community/consultant/council partnership
 Research institutes
 Learning peer to peer eg SLEX and landcare
 Aboriginal involvement
 Opportunity to be a leader with our Sustainability Strategy
 Stronger links between NESAC and UNE, maintain communication and
relationship
Government
 Land manager / government cooperation in a non threatening non regulatory way
 Local government can actively target and strengthen partnerships with sustainable
industries
 NESAC suits a bioregional approach
 LEP need more control at local level
 Council’s waste water treatment to return higher quality and volume to streams
 Local government use best sustainable technology for their own buildings
 Improve sustainability requirements of building especially commercial
 Federal government incentives for retrofitting houses for energy efficiency
Challenges
Qu: “What are the environmental challenges of the NESAC region in terms of
sustainability?”
Resource decline
 Peak oil
 Peak Phosphorous
 Suburban food production would need to be responsible practice, conservative
water use, not creating public nuisance etc.
Community, government
 People too busy to participate in community groups / action
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 Duplication of effort in bringing about sustainability
 Collection of firewood poorly regulated
 Local government imperative for development
 Lack of money (debt) for local and state government to spend on environment
 Environment low on the agenda of state gov
Biodiversity, land degradation
 Climate change effect on biodiversity
 Most wilderness is rugged areas only
 NESAC region has 100s of species and 10s of ecological communities listed as
threatened and the trend is further biodiversity decline
 Emerging issues that don't have lack of community awareness – weeds, pets
animals and further tree decline
 Tree-changers not managing land well
 Much of the remaining areas of threatened woodland, grassland and wetland
communities are still under non-sustainable impacts from agriculture
Pollution
 Waste management, no future landfill site, loss of environmental flows with waste
water diverted to livestock production,
 Air pollution, wood smoke
 Land pollution, waste management
Vision
Qu: “In say 10 years when this sustainability strategy has been up and running and
the whole of community is behind it, what does the NESAC region look and feel like?”
(only asked in one to one interviews)
Natural
 No species decline (this is possible)
 Clean water ways
 More attractive to live in
Community
 Government, community and scientists collaborate on monitoring sustainability
indicators and building knowledge on better managing for sustainability
 Strong community networks, offering lots of opportunities for peer to peer
education, mentoring and encouragement to be more sustainable
 Positive feel in the community with NESAC being identified as sustainable
Business, primary industries
 Trade of food in and out of the region, but no net decline in region’s resource base
 Primary production that totally integrates land and biodiversity conservation with
production and profitability
 More diversified manufacturing and primary industries
Technology
 Building development sympathetic to heritage and landscape and energy efficient
 NESAC a leading region for sustainable technologies, both research and production
 Consideration of energy implications of developments
Government and infrastructure
 Outdoor urban spaces that are supportive of human health and well being
 Parks and gardens that bring people together places that encourage you to start
talking to people you wouldn’t normally meet
 NESAC Population Strategy integrated with sustainability
 Sustainability Strategy that educates and encourages reduction in ecological
footprint
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Non-care strategy
Public transport that makes use of available infrastructure and services eg empty
school busses (one-way), train-lines used for trains, bike or walking paths
Much stronger links between UNE and local government planning – apply current
research locally
Stakeholder groups participating
Group
Landcare
Sustainable Living
Armidale
Scientific/ecological
(agency)
Scientific/ecological
(academic)
Sustainable agriculture
(academic)
Armidale Greens Party
Method
SWOC group
workshop
SWOC group
workshop
SWOC Interview
SWOC Interview
SWOC Interview
SWOC Interview
Private forestry
SWOC Interview
Rural sustainability
(academic)
Local Government
SWOC Interview
SWOC Interview
Contact(s) involved
SNELCC quarterly representative committee
meeting
SLA monthly meeting
Alan Ede, Ecologist, NSW Department of
Environment and Climate Change
Peter Clark, Deputy Chair, Government of
NSW Scientific Committee, Botany, UNE
Paul Khristiansen Lecturer in Agronomy,
Agronomy and Soil Science, UNE
Peter O'Donohue Member, Armidale Greens
Party
David Thompson, Resource Economist,
Northern Inland Forestry Investment Group
Graham Marshall, Program Leader, Institute
for Rural Futures, UNE
David Steller, Director of Engineering, ADC
Gaps in stakeholder consultation
 Sustainable building design industry
 Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research – some information provided by David
Thompson, but more involvement of the research centre would be ideal
Documents referenced
Southern New England Tablelands Region State of Environment Report, 2004/2005
Northern Rivers Catchment Action Plan
SNELCC’s Regional Landcare Action Plan
Methods
Data collection as above using hand written notes. Points repeated by more than one
informant were only reported once. Points were grouped into themes.
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