Extension/Education Project Database 
PROJECTS - view record:
| Project details: | |
| ID: | 16 |
| Model: | A |
| Name: | NSW Far South Coast River Bank Management Demonstration |
| Industry: | Beef, Dairy |
| Funder: | Land & Water Australia & NSW Rivercare 2000 Incentives |
| Provider: | NSW Department of Land & Water Conservation (DLWC) |
| Abstract: |
A need was identified to explore management options and develop demonstrations as first step in farm management culture change. This was due to declining river health, and the poor condition of river corridors. Problems that were exacerbated by cattle grazing leading to faecal contamination, vegetation decline, river bank and bed erosion and sedimentation.
A social division has arisen between the new settler (lifestyle) land holders who embrace Landcare approach and old settler commercial farmers who see Landcare as a ‘greenie plot’. This division, aggravated by the South East Forest protest movement has somewhat polarised the community and has largely worked against commercial farmers adopting the Landcare approach. There has been a history of significant resistance to the uptake of environmental programs on farms. Lessons Learnt ■Management options have proven effective at delivering desirable river health improvements whilst maintaining farm productivity. The project appears to have found the ‘win/win’ recipe for riparian management – the path of least resistance is yielding good river health results. ■The fundamental values of participating farmers (epistemiological and ontological approaches to the place of rivers in the scheme of farm management and their ecological functions) were not perceptibly shifted. This does not seem important, given that there were good river health outcomes arising from working within these value frameworks in any case. |
| Report: | VIEW |
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