Implications for land management

Conservation of grassy rangeland ecosystems needs a different approach than fragmented landscapes, such as the wheatbelt of Western Australia and the monsoonal rainforests of Northern Australia.

Land management is the responsibility of the land holders. They need to incorporate a range of intensities of management for sustainability and to control pests and exotic species.

For sustainable grazing it is important to understand the mental models of livestock producers and to understand how and why they manage their properties in particular ways. It is vital to integrate conservation and production.

It is also important to study landscape context. Understanding fluxes in the landscape (i.e. fluxes of exotic species, nutrients and water) and the spatial arrangement of land use intensity allows the implications of management to be related to ecosystem function.

Regional conservation planning that has been taking place at CSIRO DWE in Alice Springs produced the requirements that :

• land in reserves should be managed for conservation
• land outside reserves should be managed sympathetically to conservation objectives

Conservation outside reserves is especially important in tropical areas where landscapes suffer the effects of harsh dry seasons, and populations are vulnerable and may die out locally even in reserves. This highlights the need for management as a whole to maintain core populations in the landscape, which can provide stock for recolonisation and recovery.

You might like to look at the interactive CDROM produced by CSIRO DWE on desert landscapes.