Kachana Pastoral Company promoting Environmental Literacy:
Learning to read and to “right” what
Nature is telling us now…
Input to local environmental debates from the grass-roots…
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Reinventing the ecological function of ‘Pastoralism’
and taking it to our rangelands and nature-reserves…
By Chris Henggeler, February 2005
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“The difference between
‘introduced’ and ‘native’ species is time.” Allan Savory
Pastoralism with its 217-year history is new to Australia… but then (viewed in ecological terms) so is all human occupation on this island-continent…
Some view Australia’s
pastoral industry as having been the driving force behind the building of this
relatively young Nation…
Others blame Australia’s
pastoral industry for the introduction of feral species and for an ongoing
decline in biodiversity…
But how many are aware
that Australia’s pastoral industry is perhaps poised to become a world leader
in the reclaiming of arid desert environments for building biodiversity and
thus a sound ecological base for sustainable agriculture!
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Question: HOW?
Answer: THE KEY IS IN HARNESSING THE ENERGY
OF AUSTRALIA’S NEW
MEGA-FAUNA: OUR INTRODUCED HERDING HERBIVORES
Question: WHAT? (the ‘function question’)
Answer: HEALTHY PLANTS NEED HEALTHY SOIL
AND OCCASIONAL PRUNING; HERBIVORES ARE NATURE’S GARDENERS: THEIR ROLE IS TO
MULCH AND FERTILISE THE SOIL AND TO PRUNE PLANTS.
Question: WHY?
Answer: WE HUMANS (as well as all other
complex organisms) RELY ON HEALTHY PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPES TO PRODUCE CLEAN AIR,
GOOD WATER AND HEALTHY FOOD THAT IS RICH IN ENERGY.
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The information age has brought to Pastoralism: New
global knowledge, new local skills….
With this come: New
areas of research, new fields of employment, new wealth…
These are indeed exciting times for people on the land. All over Australia we
are beginning to see proactive change at the grass roots:
- Holistic Management - A new framework for
making decisions
- Soil Foodweb Inc.
- A better understanding
productive living soils
- Resource Consulting
Services - "Redesigning Agriculture"
- Low Stress Stockhandling
- Working with the nature of your
animals...
- Biodynamic AgriCulture
Australia - Working with natural cycles...
Kachana
Pastoral Company uses this new knowledge to focus on the practical management aspects of catchment and rangeland
issues in broader landscape settings:
- Building healthy productive soil
- Ensuring reliable
flows of good
clean water in our creek-systems
- Trapping carbon by increasing biodiversity in our soil, plant
and animal communities
- Detoxification of areas where
mistakes have been made in the past
- Revitalising areas that have a
known history of higher levels of productivity and biodiversity
- Offering Landscape
Management Advice
- Offering our
“out-door out-back classroom” for workshops,
seminars and practical skill-training
- Educational
workshops
- The
Byrne Terry Ellenbrae Fund: Skill training for
agricultural students or young farmers in ecological crisis zones.
We explore the roles and potential of Australia’s own unique species. However we also believe in including the use of New Australians (introduced species: people, animals, plants, etc.) to beneficially impact our rangeland-landscapes.
Agriculture and
Pastoralism in particular are uniquely positioned to additionally serve larger
community-interests by being able to provide many of the outcomes aspired to
and listed in Natural Resource Management plans.
We do however also harbour a particular concern:
Private caring land-managers have arguably become a rare and endangered species… they remain however a key-species (without them economies fail)…
Theirs is the task to:
· Marry the demands of extractive commerce with production that is dictated by natural cycles and forces
· Appease armies of publicly funded politicians and bureaucrats who are paid to ‘care about the land’
· With restricted funds, translate conflicting information and regulation into actual ‘ongoing care for the land’ (in many instances this involves environmental challenges that have been inherited from earlier forms of management.)
Conclusion:
Question: WHEN? (When will Australia’s pastoral industry
become a world leader in the reclaiming of arid desert environments for
building biodiversity?)
Answer: WHEN ENOUGH KEY-PEOPLE BEGIN TO ASK: “‘WHAT’? AND ‘WHY’?”
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Solar energy is what fuels our biosphere… “GREEN” is a good
indicator that new energy is entering our global economic equation…
Modern Pastoralism has the ability to make soil a renewable resource!
2005 KACHANA LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP
SEPTEMBER 2005 WORKSHOP: BOOKING DETAILS
GRASS ROOTS INPUT TO ENVIRONMENTAL DEBATES
Kachana Pastoral Company
promoting environmental literacy and functional science:
www.environmental-literacy.com:
Learning to read and to “right”
what Nature is telling us now.
So what exactly do we mean by "Environmental Literacy"?
The link above takes you to a two-page summary of
- What we think it means and what it does not mean
- How we hope to do our part in meeting the challenges we all face