Keynote address to the Restore, Regenerate, Revegetate conference at the University of New England, 2017

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Four decades
of land repair in Australia:
what have we learnt?
Andrew Campbell
Restore, Regenerate, Revegetate conference
Armidale, 7 February 2017
• This conference is timely and reflection is appropriate
• Well planned revegetation, bush regeneration, restoration,
agroforestry and farm forestry systems have a crucial role to play
in 21st Century Australian landscapes, across all tenures
• Many of us have been saying this for up to 40 years
• We’ve seen considerable technical, social and policy innovation
• At different times in different places, Australia has developed and
demonstrated most of the elements for the world’s best NRM
framework, and learnt amazing restoration insights
• But we fail to put it all together at a continental scale, & sustain it
• Progress remains partial, patchy, slow and too often ephemeral
• Some thoughts on future directions
Key Points

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My journey to here
• Farming background south-eastern Australia
– Family farming near Cavendish since 1860s, own farm managed since 1987
– 450ha: 30% farm forestry, 10% environmental reserves, 60% leased for sheep
• Studied forestry and rural sociology (Creswick & Melbourne 78-83)
• Extension Forester (Vic Govt)/Potter Farmland Plan Manager ‘81-88
• National Landcare Facilitator 1989-92
• Studied Rural Knowledge Systems (Wageningen/Toulouse) 1992-4
• Environment Australia Executive (Managed Bushcare) 1995-2000
• CEO, Land & Water Australia 2000-06
• Triple Helix Consulting (strategy & policy) 2007-10
• Director RIEL, Charles Darwin University 2011-16
• CEO, Australian Centre for International Ag Research (ACIAR) 2016-
“Crowlands”
Cavendish
March 2002
450 ha
Land Use
120ha forestry
30ha environmental services
300ha grazing
N
View
to
Grampians
Homestead
E. globulus 1999
E. globulus 2000
P. radiata 2000
P. radiata 1999
E. globulus 1999
E. globulus 2000
Environmental
& furniture
plantings

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“If we had discovered & colonised
England, do you think we’d have grazed it
with kangaroos?”
Managing Australian Vegetation
1950 - 1980
• Increasing production
(wool boom, myxo, clover leys, new varieties)
• Improving productivity
• Large scale mechanical clearing
– encouraged by governments
• Gung-ho plant introductions
• Pine plantations on cleared land
• A handful of farm tree pioneers

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Focus on Farm Trees 1980
snippets
Victorian Premier Rupert Hamer:
“Australia’s first European settlers quickly developed a love-
hate relationship with our native forests…
Trees became widely regarded in this country as some sort of
enemy to be destroyed without compunction.
We are the unfortunate heirs of that process of deliberate
silvan devastation.
[tree decline] is degrading our rural landscape in its
production capacity. As the heartland of a rich, unique
wildlife and as a place of beauty and relaxation for the entire
community.”

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Focus on Farm Trees 1980
snippets
Rapporteur Professor Carrick Chambers:
• Noted how several speakers (Butler, Batini, Davidson, Day) stressed the
importance of an ecological understanding of vegetation dynamics, succession,
fire, insects, edge effects
• Touched on debates about species “Otto Frankel suggested… that we not be
slaves to local ecotypes and species… but rather use the most likely to
succeed…”
• Emphasised importance of encouraging natural regeneration
• And of radically limiting subsidies for land clearing (clear calls on Govt)
• Pushed for greater coordination across agencies and jurisdictions
• Highlighted the need for ‘an inventory of model examples’ of farms
• Called for more research into basic biology and biochemistry of eucs wrt insects
and genetic selection for salt tolerance, and “a much more careful economic
analysis of agroforestry conservation”
Managing Australian Vegetation
1980 - 1990
• Grasping sustainability
• Large scale clearing continues (slows in south)
• Focus on Farm Trees (University of Melbourne 1980)
• Garden State Committee, Farm Tree Groups, NRCL (Vic)
• Project Tree Cover, Project Branch Out
• Farm Forestry Loans, Tree Growing Assistance Scheme (VIC)
1977-84
• UN Year of the Tree, Greening Australia 1982
• LCDCs (WA 82), catchment groups, Land for Wildlife
• Men of the Trees, Trees for Life
• Potter Farmland Plan 1984-88
• LandCare (Vic 86)
• PM Hawke national launch of Decade of Landcare, July 1989

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We’ve been
talking about
sylvan rural
landscapes for
decades
Depressing reading
optimistic clarion
calls from the past
Vis Reid & Wilson 1985,
Campbell 1990,
Alexandra & Hall 1998,
Youl 2001, Garnaut
2007, Reid 2008, Lang
2008, Wentworth Group
2009
But transformational
change is not easy,
and rarely fast
Vision statements from 20 years ago (1)
from a 1996 native vegetation policy framework
The Australian countryside in 2010
• managing natural resources as if we’re here for
good, not just passing through
• distinctively Australian land use systems
– beyond ‘repairs & maintenance’
– defined targets and benchmarks for net emissions,
water use, drainage, run-off, nutrients, biodiversity
– multiple use landscapes
– multiple income sources
– independent monitoring

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Vision statements from 20 years ago (2)
from a 1996 native vegetation policy framework
The republican economy in 2010
• GDP complemented by greener national accounts
• more environmental services valued
• taxes & charges penalise resource depletion &
degradation, & reward NRM investment
• prices paid by consumers and received by producers reflect
environmental costs and benefits
• more Australian exports (by value) derived from native
plants, animals & landscapes; value-added
and from 15 years ago
(Alexandra & Campbell “Prospects for Australian Plantations” 2002)
Prospects for Australian plantations depend on how well
forestry handles a series of critical relationships between
forest and plantation design and management at a landscape
scale and:
• catchment hydrology, streamflows and water quality;
• delivery of environmental services (habitat, carbon, run-
off, bioenergy, recharge);
• regional development (planning, demography, rating,
roads, schools and services etc); and
• sources and modes of investment in plantations vs
community engagement in and acceptance of large-scale
plantation developments.

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Managing Australian Vegetation
1980 – 1990 (2)
• Tree planters no longer ‘weird’ (in south at least)
• Focus on shade, shelter, erosion, discharge
• Skinny straight rows, creek-hugging fences
• Few species, not always indigenous
• Direct seeding experiments, agroforestry trials
• Minimal focus on active habitat management or wetlands
(apart from some wimpy ‘corridors’)
• Property scale at best
• Revegetation efforts mainly ‘landscape decoration’ (Alexandra)
or landscape ‘garnish’ (Lefroy)
Managing Australian Vegetation
1990 – 2000
• Decade of Landcare, Save the Bush, One Billion Trees
• Natural Heritage Trust and Bushcare
• Various employment programs (LEAP, GreenCorps)
• Social programs with unrealistic biophysical objectives
• Hitting the limits of voluntarism & diffusion
• Native veg R&D program, Joint Venture Agroforestry Program
• Master Treegrowers, agroforestry networks
• Trust for Nature, Bush Heritage, AWC, Birds Australia
• Proliferation of community groups, plans, strategies
• Applying for funds the main game - grants overdone
• Stirrings of creative policy (incentives, rights, markets)

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Managing Australian Vegetation
1990 – 2000 (2)
• Clearing accelerates again in north
 mostly misguided, spurred by clumsy attempt to regulate
• Over-emphasis on revegetation in south
 mainly trees, emerging emphasis on local spp
 insufficient attention to grasslands, understorey spp
 still skinny, lineal, creek-hugging, fly spots on the map
• Early attempts to manage for habitat values
• Property scale at best
• Biodiversity and greenhouse enter the lexicon
• Salinity becomes sexy, but reality slow to bite
• Land, water, vegetation mostly DISintegrated
Managing Australian Vegetation
2000 - 2015
• Natural Heritage Trust II ($1.2B)
• National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality ($1.4B)
• Consolidation of Regional NRM model (56 regions)
• Clean Energy Future package (funded by price on carbon)
 Caring for our Country
 Biodiversity Fund
 Carbon Farming Initiative
• National Plan for Water Security ($12B)
• Murray Darling Basin Plan (to fix over-allocation of water)
• Cuts to Landcare almost ‘offset’ by $$ for Green Army
• Abolition of LWA, cuts to RIRDC, end of JVAP, start of NESP
• Private land conservation bodies continue to thrive

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We know
we can restore landscapes
20

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Shelterbelt direct seeded (1985) in previous slide (this photo 2005)
Adoption reality check
• Old adoptability rules still apply (Pannell et al)
– Relative advantage
– trialability
• Economic & regulatory signals remain weak

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Adoption Issues
• On-farm change is more likely where innovations:
– Offer relative advantage over existing systems/approaches
– Are not too complex
– Can be trialled, tested and evaluated (preferably on a modest scale)
– “Fit” with the farmer’s outlook, capacity and farming system
– Offer good returns within a reasonable timeframe
• Broadscale revegetation (including agroforestry)
options in Australia are rarely easily adoptable

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Case study: Kikuyu perennial
pasture & trees Albany, WA
A promising farming system?
• Profitability of the existing, annual pasture based
system = $80 per ha
• Profitability of the kikuyu/Bluegum system
= $230/ ha (without including forestry income)
• Current system uses little water and leaks like a
sieve
• The kikuyu/Bluegum system will reduce future
salinity and improve water quality in rivers
[SGS data
fromWarren Mason]
On-Farm Impacts
 High initial outlay (trees + Kikuyu)
 Low groundwater recharge/nutrient loss
 Soil acidification alongside/beneath trees
 Low soil erosion/low run-off/empty farm dams?
 Reduction in broadleaf weeds
 Reduced soil nitrogen fertility
 Much higher skills needed to balance risks

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Off-Farm Impacts
 Reduced salinity risk
 Reduced sediment & nutrients to waterways
 Reduced contamination of groundwater
 Reduced erosion of river and creek banks
 More regional employment
 Potential invasion of waterways and native
vegetation by kikuyu
Financial & other
considerations
Gross Margin $80/ha to $230/ha ($150 - $190 better)
Other Key Considerations
 High stocking rate required
 Increased need for insect control (RLEM)
+ worm control more difficult in sheep
 Improved wool yield & strength (diameter)
 Supplementary feed not needed
 Loss of pasture under trees plus long delay on tree $
returns

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Overall Assessment
A highly profitable system with many NRM & $$$ advantages;
but higher skills and investment needed.
Pros
 More profitable and sustainable
 Reduced need for supplementary feeding
 Trees provide additional income
Cons
 Poor winter performance if legume content in pasture is low
 Increased worm risk in summer/autumn
 Bluegums can acidify soils and reduce fertility

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Implications
• Current options won’t be adopted widely in the absence of
intense intervention
• It needs to be targeted
– options by region where value stacks up
• New more attractive and adoptable options are needed –
hence the need for research
• Genuine integration with agriculture or pastoralism always
demands higher level management expertise
• Hence good extension and persuasive signals
Through thousands of practitioners, and high quality applied research,
over the last 40 years we now know much more about:
 Ecology (and values) of remnant native vegetation (and new plantings)
 How to plant, seed, protect and manage native veg in rural landscapes
 Where to retain/protect/restore tree cover in catchments and farms
 Complex dynamics (spatial & temporal) of trees, runoff, infiltration and
salinity
 Trees and shelter in Australian conditions
 Vegetation management in riparian zones (including in-stream)
 Agroforestry and farm forestry systems (including processing options)
 Fodder shrubs and animal nutrition
 Trees for biofuels and bioenergy
We have learned a great deal

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Through thousands of practitioners, and high quality applied research,
over the last 40 years we now know much more about:
 Carbon farming opportunities, options and accounting
 Landscape fire management (in the north particularly)
 Indigenous Savanna burning abatement methodologies
 Private nature conservation
 Incentives to encourage conservation behaviour: Taxation,
Covenanting, Local government, Stewardship payments, Market-based
approaches, Regulation
 Allocation tools to optimise return on a given quantum of public and/or
private investment
 Performance metrics and evaluation tools for habitat quality and
restoration effectiveness
We have learned a great deal (2)
The wider context:
Converging Insecurities
• Climate change
• Direct impacts
• Impacts of climate change policies – e.g. carbon markets
• Energy
• the era of cheap, easily extracted fossil fuels is ending
• Water
• Every calorie we consume uses one litre in its production
• Every litre weighs one kilogram
• Per capita freshwater availability declining steeply
• Food — increase world production up to 70% by 2050
• Using less land, water, fossil energy and nutrients 34

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We stand on the shoulders of giants
• In every jurisdiction, pioneering farmers showed what
was possible
• Too many names to mention, and apologies to worthy
omissions, but here’s a few notables:
VICTORIA: Practitioners Advisers
John & Cicely Fenton
Bill Sharp
Neil & Sue Lawrance
Heather & Mick Acocks
Richard & JennyWeatherley
Terry Simpson
Andrew andVal Lang
Bruce, Lyn, Andrew and John Milne
Andrew & Jill Stewart
Angus Howell
Rowan Reid
Jason Alexandra
MarkWootton & Eve Kantor
Bill Middleton
Rod Bird & Keith Cumming
Bob Peese
RobYoul
Sue Campbell AWDC
Rod May & Nan Oates
TerryWhite
David Holmgren
RichardVines (Country Roads Board)
Rowan Reid
Jason Alexandra
Frank Hirst & Philippa Noble
Andrew Bennett
We stand on the shoulders of giants
• In every jurisdiction, pioneering farmers showed what
was possible
• Too many names to mention, and apologies to worthy
omissions, but here’s a few notables:
NEW SOUTH WALES/ACT
Practitioners Advisers
Jon, Vicki & MichaelTaylor
Noel & Kim Passalaqua
David Marsh
JohnWeatherstone
John Ive
Sheila Donaldson
Col Seis & Bruce Maynard
Gordon & WendyWilliams
John & Michelle Lynn
James & Caroline Street
PaulTrevethan
Judy Frankenberg
Rob Davidson
David Curtis
Dick Green, Brett Miners, Dave Carr,
Toby Jones et al
Sue McIntyre
Julian Prior
Nick Reid
David Freudenberger
Sue Briggs
David Lindenmayer & colleagues
Gus Sharpe & Mark Jackson
Annabel Kater

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We stand on the shoulders of giants
• In every jurisdiction, pioneering farmers
showed what was possible
• Too many names to mention, and apologies to
worthy omissions, but here’s a few notables:
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Practitioners Advisers
Sam Jericho
Ted Allender
Mary Crawford
Greg Campbell
Peter & Chris Feast
Darryl Bell
James Darling
Brendon Lay
Peter Bulman
Bruce Munday
JackieVenning
Brendon Lay
Barbara Hardy
We stand on the shoulders of giants
• In every jurisdiction, pioneering farmers
showed what was possible
• Too many names to mention, and apologies to
worthy omissions, but here’s a few notables:
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Practitioners Advisers
Jos & Dennis Chatfield
David Jenkins
Jenny Dewing
Jan & Garry English
RonWatkins
Dean Melvin
Peter Coffey
Don Stanley
TonyYork
Terri Lloyd
Jon Collett ALCOA
John Bartle
Keith Bradby
Richard Moore
David Bicknell
Bob Hingston
Richard Hobbs
Dennis Saunders
Steve Hopper
Ted Lefroy

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We stand on the shoulders of giants
• In every jurisdiction, pioneering farmers
showed what was possible
• Too many names to mention, and apologies to
worthy omissions, but here’s a few notables:
TASMANIA
Practitioners Advisers
Biz & Lindsay Nicholson
Cynthia & Tom Dunbabin
Ian Dickenson
Julian von Bibra
Major Raelph & Simon Cameron
Richard Gardner
Andrew Colvin
Ian Sauer
Bill Mollison
Jamie Kirkpatrick
Louise Gilfedder
Arthur Lyons
Anna Povey
Jane Hutchinson
Ted Lefroy
Management is much more than just planting
Source: “People, Sheep and Nature Conservation by Jamie Kirkpatrick and Kerry Bridle p16
Major Cameron (‘Kingston’ Conara)
learnt how to burn
from his stockman Jack Rigby,
who learnt from his father,
who learnt from an Aboriginal man.

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We stand on the shoulders of giants
• In every jurisdiction, pioneering farmers
showed what was possible
• Too many names to mention, and apologies to
worthy omissions, but here’s a few notables:
NT & QUEENSLAND
Practitioners Advisers
Bob Purvis
DeanYibarbuk
Otto Campion
Jock Douglas
Angus Emmott
Jeremy Russell-Smith
Joe Morrison
PeterWhitehead
Brian Roberts
Kate Andrews
Recurrent Themes/Perennial Challenges
• The ‘nativists vs functionalists’ debate
• Matching funders to beneficiaries to get reasonable incentives
(carbon price is a great enabler)
• Achieving efficiency at scale vs ‘landscape decoration’
• Despite considerable improvement in revegetation capabilities
and investments of road authorities, utilities and local
government etc, we’re still a long way from having a vibrant
private contractor industry (expertise x region)
• Over reliance on voluntarism
— inherently patchy & vulnerable
• Hollowing out and squaring up of the inland
— fewer and fewer people operating bigger and bigger
machines – that work in straight lines & don’t like trees

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Recurrent Themes/Perennial Challenges (2)
• Genuine integration of trees into agriculture requires a long
term vision, commitment and considerable skill
• Research and extension (public & private) remain important
• Research investment remains trivial
(decline since axing of LWA and close of JVAP, despite NESP)
• Plantation forestry settings are still not right
(scars remain from the MIS debacle)
• Biofuels and carbon opportunities remain huge, but
contingent on appropriate policy settings
• After >200 years, we still have had no systematic product
development from Australian tree and shrub flora
• BUT many landscapes in SE & SW Australia look much better
today than they did 30-40 years ago
Final thoughts
• Rural landscapes are increasingly contested and
squeezed between major drivers: demography,
climate, energy, water and food
• Well planned woody perennials (planted, seeded,
regenerated) are crucial in conservation, agroforestry
and farm forestry systems integrated within more
sustainable and resilient Australian landscapes
• We have a solid information base and many good
exemplars
• We have a maturing (albeit threadbare) regional
framework

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Final thoughts (2)
• We may have lost momentum, but we still have all the
elements of a world-leading policy & practice story
• Other countries are embarking on or planning large-scale
revegetation and landscape restoration efforts
• Australian expertise has much to offer the world
• People in this room have much to offer Australia
• History says the wheel will turn back here too
• We’re still learning to live like Australians, but over the
last forty years we’ve achieved a great deal
• It’s right to reflect on and celebrate achievements