Sustaining Australia's Land - Time for Action
In a moment of philosophical insight most uncommon among American presidents, James Garfield remarked that 'The past is but the unrolled scroll of prophecy'. As palaeontologists exploring Australia's fossil record, we're discovering that Garfield's 'scroll of prophecy' can be used to obtain a unique view of the conservation status of living creatures and their environments. For example, the fossil record behind the now extinct Tasmanian Thylacine reveals a steady decline in diversity and geographic area over the last 25 million years. If known 200 years ago, this understanding might have tempered the persecution metered out by Tasmania's sheep farmers.
The World Heritage fossil deposits at Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland, which span the last 30 million years of the continent's prehistory, are at once a stunning statement about pre-human biodiversity in Australia's rainforests and a challenge to complacency about our ability to conserve--on a long-term basis--Australia's living mammals. Although we marvel at fascinating beasts like 'Thingodonta', 'Bizarrodonta' and 'Kuterintja' among the 44% of families that have vanished over the last 15 million years, we have not come to terms with the alarming message of this loss--it correlates with a decline in the area of Australia's rainforests.
Since humans arrived, rainforests have been further reduced. Are the fragments that remain large enough for long-term survival of the lineages they contain? The answer appears to be 'no'; they are almost certainly 'environmental leper colonies'.
Evidence suggests they are at least an order of magnitude too small. Islands the size of New Caledonia (18,650 km2), although adequate to conserve plants and some groups of animals on a long-term basis, appear to be death traps for mammals. Overall, islands smaller than 300,000 km2 appear to be too small for long-term conservation of mammals. Small areas are prone to proportionately huge catastrophic environmental disasters. The Black Friday bushfire of 1939 in Victoria destroyed 20,000 km2 of forest in one hit--an area bigger than Kakadu National Park which at 19,757 km2 is the largest protected area in Australia containing unique mammals.
If we are serious about long-term conservation, about wanting to keep Australia's unique mammals for future generations thousands of years down the road, we must find ways of increasing the size of Australia's protected areas. This challenge and economically viable paths to this end have been staring us in the face for more than a century. It's high time we trialed a different economic strategy, one that will give Australia's creatures long-term viability and in the process employ more Australians and make us all filthy rich.
Overall, the long-term goal should be to reshape Australia as the 'Environmental Riviera of the World'. As the rest of the world erodes its wild places for short-term gain, Australia, the last 'settled' and least damaged continent, should target for recovery and restoration at least 20% of its land (300,000 km2 for each broad habitat type) for multiple use: long-term conservation, sustainable harvest of natural resources, ecotourism and safe mining.
To accomplish this goal, we need to begin to down-size conventional agriculture based on non-Australian species such as sheep and cattle, particularly in Australia's vast and marginal rangelands. These introduced animals have us locked into accumulating, unsustainable land degradation costs of $5 billion per year. Arguments that we must do this to feed Australians are misleading because we also export enough food to feed 50 million people off shore.
Second, we should harvest kangaroos (and other sustainably harvestable native resources) for human consumption using grazing properties and graziers now on the land. Kangaroo meat is far healthier (and as far as I am concerned tastier) than that of beef or sheep--there's no such thing as 'mad kangaroo disease'. Kangaroos have millions of years of evolutionary experience in maximising meat yields without causing damage to the surface of Australia. Economists and agriculturalists have shown that if kangaroos currently culled for pet food from, for example, the mulgalands of Queensland were sold instead for human consumption, graziers, in a restructured industry, could make up to 50% more money than they currently realise running sheep (which involves an $80,000,000/yr land degradation cost). The kangaroo industry is sustainable and ensures the long-term survival of the kangaroo species involved. All that's required is recognition that environmentally friendly kangaroos are an incredibly valuable, sustainably-harvestable resource--not a pest; markets and millions will follow. As an added benefit (and goal) of focusing on native resources for sustainable incomes, the health of the ecosystems as a whole required to support these resources will be guaranteed. When we value an animal because it is the basis for economic wealth, we will ensure that the things it requires to survive will be secured.
Third, we need to encourage growth in the ecotourist and mining industries. Mines provide more of Australia's GDP than agriculture, 53% of Australia's total merchandise export earnings, and damage less than 0.02% of the continent--in contrast to the more than 60% of Australia's lands damaged (often irretrievably) by agriculture.
The prophecy from the fossil record is clear; what we do about it is up to us. Ours is the last generation that will have the chance to head off what seems certain to be a biological catastrophe far greater than any that has gone before. Prospects of an environmentally healthy Australia, sustainable economic wealth and long-term security for rural communities are surely reasons enough to make us stop and think about what our grandchildren will otherwise think of us.
For these reasons, we have conceived FATE as a syncretic program to experimentally confront problems noted above and, in the process, increase viability to rural ecosystems and regional Australia.
FATE (Future of Australian Terrestrial Ecosystems) Project
Transcendent goal of FATE
The transcendent goal of the FATE Project is to demonstrate by rural experiment how changes in resource management, including sustainable harvesting of native resources, can increase the long-term viability of Australian mammal lineages and increase the economic viability and long-term future for rural communities currently struggling to survive. It will, in effect, be a rural demonstration of theoretical arguments for the economic value of biodiversity.
Facilitating goals of FATE
- Clarification of the requirements for long-term viability of mammal lineages in Australia (utilising, in part, research results relating to the Riversleigh World Heritage fossil deposits of northwestern Queensland);
- Clarification, through research, consultation and work-shopping, of land-use practices and/or conditions that inhibit long-term viability of Australian mammal lineages;
- Clarification, through research, consultation and work-shopping, of land-use practices, particularly those focused on sustainable harvesting of native resources (e.g., Emus, Eastern Greys, Reds, Euros and native plants), will be trialed as ways to increase the long-term viability of Australian mammal lineages and provide supplementary income streams for graziers on properties with declining prospects for future survival;
- Identification of regions in Australia where experiments to improve the long-term viability of mammal lineages as well as sympatric rural communities of people are most needed and most practical;
- Identification of individuals (within and beyond the Australian Museum), organisations and governments that could be valuable partners in researching as well as carrying out experiments in land-use change;
- Management access for ~ten years to appropriately large (perhaps 5 to 10 adjacent properties) and resourced rural area(s) to conduct experiments in land-use capable of achieving the transcendent goal of FATE;
- If successful, adumbration of experiments of this kind in other areas of rural Australia;
- If unsuccessful, research into the reasons why, revision and renewal of the experimental process;
- Ongoing public exposition, through regional and urban displays, throughout the progress of the experimental phase of FATE.
Increased dependence on key native species will force widespread revision in land management practices to secure these species, which in turn will improve the otherwise declining prospects for survival of thousands of non-target species dependent for their survival on the environmental health of those same habitats. The overall consequence of meeting these facilitating goals will be to identify and put into practice sustainable strategies for living within, caring for and profiting from Australia's natural resources as well as ensuring a future for rural communities.
CREATE to FATE: Future Directions of the Australian Museum
Within the Museum, FATE will have very strong links with the Centre for Research into the Evolution of Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystems (CREATE), our other new initiative. The goal of CREATE is to provide a focus for studies into the evolution of Australia's Ecosystems, concentrating on the last 100 million years. The main emphasis will be on the lessons that can be learned from the past and how these can provide an understanding of the present and the key to our future. Initially, the main areas of research will be the fossil sites at Riversleigh (a World Heritage site), Murgon, and Lightning Ridge.
Researchers in the Australian Museum with concerns about the long-term viability of Australia's mammals (and other terrestrial creatures) and/or rural communities will become involved in one or more of FATE's goal-driven activities. Assessments of initial and changing levels of biodiversity in the experimental region will require the skills of systematists in many fields from entomology to botany.
Participants and relationships to kindred organisations
Researchers in other museums, universities and government organisations who share these same concerns will be sought and consulted for advice and potential participation.
The Premier has indicated his willingness to provide whatever support he can, particularly through identification of other state bodies with overlapping or shared goals. We have identified the potential value of participation of, for example: the Royal Botanic Gardens; the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service; the Department of Agriculture; and the Department of Land and Water Conservation.
NGO organisations that may be appropriate partners in this venture include, for example: Landcare Australia; a newly-formed research centre in the University of the Northern Territory focusing on sustainable use of resources in tropical ecosystems; other university groups; Indigenous communities with interests in sustainable land-use practices; and the Bookmark Project in South Australia.
Because the practical focus of FATE is very 'tight'-demonstration through rural experiment of the sustainable and economically advantageous use of native resources--we visualise that the activities of FATE will be compatible with those of already existing, more broadly-focused Centres within the Australian Museum.
Media Release - Sustaining Australia's Land - Time for Action
Professor Michael Archer biography