General News
$4.2 MILLION FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION
The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, has announced $4.2 million worth of grants for priority research to assist Australian communities prepare for climate change. The research projects funded under the Climate Change Adaptation Research Grants program will explore adaptation measures to prepare and protect settlements and infrastructure, primary industries and terrestrial biodiversity from the unavoidable impacts of climate change.
“Climate change will have a range of impacts on our urban and rural communities including rising temperatures, changes to rainfall, evaporation and an increasing rate of extreme weather events,” Mr Combet said.
The funding will go to 17 research projects examining climate change impacts and exploring practical adaptation options to support communities across Australia. The University of Adelaide, for example, will evaluate the impact of heat waves on households and infrastructure and develop an integrated national response to adapt to these extreme events. The University of Western Australia will assess the adaptive capacity of broad acre farms and identify successful adaptation strategies already undertaken by farmers. Charles Darwin University will identify actions to preserve Australia’s diverse bird species over the next 50 years.
“These diverse and extensive research projects, from some of Australia’s premier research organisations, will give Governments and other stakeholders vital information needed to support urban and rural settlements, the primary industry sector and our terrestrial environment,” Mr Combet said.
This round of 17 research projects reflects some of the highest priority areas of research into adaptation in Australia. The research will be managed by the Government's National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) which leads the research community in setting Australia's adaptation research priorities. Settlements and infrastructure; primary industries; and terrestrial biodiversity are three of the nine priority research themes under the Government’s National Adaptation Research. Others include emergency management, water resources & freshwater biodiversity, marine biodiversity & resources, human health, indigenous and social, economic & institutional dimensions.
For more information on the research projects visit the NCCARF website www.nccarf.edu.au
 
Celebrate Landcare Week 2011 and donate yourself to Landcare
Landcare Week: 5th – 11th September 2011
With Landcare Week 2011 fast approaching, this year we will be encouraging people to care for their local environment by getting involved with their local community group and donating themselves as a volunteer.
Landcare Week is an awareness campaign for landcare and coastcare groups, farmers embracing sustainable farm management, ‘friends of’ groups, bushcare, rivercare, dunecare, Junior Landcare and any volunteer group that manages environmental issues at a local level. The purpose of the campaign is to assist groups in the landcare movement around Australia build capacity, create awareness in their community and encourage participation by attracting volunteers.
A Landcare Week Event Kit will be available for groups to use by July 14th. This kit will include branded templates so that your group can add their name and information, and will include a poster, template media release, flyers, email signature, website tile and local newspaper ad. The kit will be available on the Landcare Australia website for you to download.
If you are organising an event during Landcare Week, please register this by emailing events@landcareaustralia.com.au Send us the date, time and location of you event, as well as a contact name and phone number or email address, and we will advertise this through our website. Please also include what type of event you are running and what people need to bring on the day.
Click here for more information
Carbon Farming Initiative Methodologies released for comment
The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DCCEE) has released three methodologies to the public for comment until 30 June 2011. These are:
- avoided emissions from savanna burning,
- management of feral camels and
- capture and combustion of landfill emissions.
Several more methodologies are under development and will be released for consultation in the coming months on forestry, manure management, methane from livestock, soil carbon and biochar. We will forward these through to you as these are released by DCCEE.
DCCEE has also released a consultation paper for comment until 30 June 2011 on the Positive and Negative Lists. This covers:
- the Positive List, which identifies activities that would be considered additional (ie not common practice) and therefore eligible to participate in the scheme; and
- the Negative List, which identifies activities that are ineligible in certain circumstances because they risk adverse impacts on communities and the environment.
Understanding carbon farming – survey of landholders
In the coming months DAFF will be engaging a consultant to conduct a survey of landholders across the country. They will focus on the level of understanding amongst landholders of crediting on-farm credits and carbon farming. The outcomes of the research will be used to refine our landholder communication strategy on the CFI and give us a benchmark to their level of understanding. For you, it will help identify the most appropriate information for farmers and landholders. The consultant will also undertake a ‘desktop review’ of existing surveys and relevant reports. If you know of any other survey work that has already been conducted, please let us know so we can pass this on to the consultant.
Other items of interest
DCCEE has updated its series of factsheets outlining the potential impact of climate change on each state. The factsheets are available on the DCCEE website at http://www.climatechange.gov.au/climate-change/impacts/national-impacts.aspx
DCCEE also today released three factsheets demonstrating that Australia is not acting alone on climate change. The factsheets are available from the DCCEE website at http://www.climatechange.gov.au/government/international/global-action-facts-and-fiction.aspx
. These factsheets on international climate change action have been developed after the recently released Productivity Commission study into the carbon policies of other countries. Copies of the Productivity Commission’s report are available on its website at http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/study/carbon-prices/report
We would welcome any feedback you have, or have received from within your region, on any of the above items – or on the CFI more generally. Please don’t hesitate to contact us on 1800 156 858 or email carbonfarminginitiative@daff.gov.au or visit www.daff.gov.au/cfi
Biodiversity of tree crops
Some time ago AVONGRO was granted funding by Lotterywest to conduct a habitat assessment of brushwood and sandalwood systems to complement the existing information on the habitat value of oil mallees. Since that time, Dr Aaron Gove of Curtin University has completed a spring and autumn sampling at 3 clusters of sites, two of which are in the Avon Wheatbelt (near Konnongorring and Southern Brook/Toodyay). Each cluster of sites contains a representation of a brushwood planting, a sandalwood planting with a single host species, a sandalwood planting with multiple host species, original native bush and a paddock (with a lupin crop where present). Sampling was done using a series of bowl and malaise traps at each site.
Dr Gove found between 10 and 100 individuals per trap and has been working since on classifying and cataloguing his finds. He has classified all the insects at a ‘higher level’ (whether they are flies, bees, wasps, ants, grasshoppers, sucking bugs, etc). So far he has identified 65 wasp species, some as small as pin heads and is in the process of identifying those known. ‘its surprising how many have not been named and for the majority we are still not certain what their role is in the overall scheme of things’, said Dr Gove.
A training event is planned for spring to show off some of the insects found and for Aaron to present his findings.
For details contact Monica Durcan at AVONGRO on 0418 934 870 or email mdurcan@iinet.net.au
Direct Seeding research continues
Field Day June 16th at Bonnie Rock.
Researcher Dr Geoff Woodall is continuing his research into direct seeding and was kind enough to show a small group the new techniques he is developing.
We are all too aware of the changing rainfall pattern yet the need for large-scale revegetation has never been more evident. Seedlings will always be an essential part of revegetation projects but with the scale of planting needed to protect our valuable agricultural soils – cheaper and more reliable methods need to be found.
Dr Woodall is trialling a method whereby a shallow knifepoint rip is set out in autumn in a narrow scalp. This allows even the slightest bit of rain to be harvested and seep into the delicate rip, evenly wetting the subsoil. Then the site is sown with approximately native seed mixed with bulking agents in winter with or without seedlings dependant on the project.
Many are hopeful that these new methods will enable the establishment of large-scale biodiverse sandalwood host systems but will certainly have many uses for a range of projects.
AVONGRO Wheatbelt Tree Cropping is the successful recipient of the funding and is grateful to Dr Woodall for his continuing research. Dr Woodall has 3 sites as part of this particular funding round, however he has replicated the work in several other localities through other funding sources.
This project is supported through funding from the Australian Government's Caring for our Country.
Photo: native seed mix with bulking agents, water harvesting scalp with knifepoint rip to harness subsoil moisture.
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