By Jenel Hunt
A symposium held last week in Stanthorpe could prove to be a pivotal moment for biodiversity in traprock country situated west and northwest of the Granite Belt.
It could even be seen as an important turning point for Australian biodiversity.
The gathering was to report the results of a pilot scheme and to launch a new regeneration project in the traprock region. Held at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism on 30 March, the meeting was attended by about 40 people including farmers from traprock country and community members with a passion for sustainability.
The whole project can be traced back to a moment when two ecologically conscious people had a similar idea. One person was traprock farmer Andrew Ferrier, who converted his property Mallow from merino sheep to organic lamb production in the early 2000s. In doing so, he became interested in biodiversity and the health of the landscape. The other was Rick Humphries, a local chemical-free producer and long-time champion of sustainable practices.
Separately, and then together, they explored in an exciting new direction – identifying opportunities for carbon projects and emerging biodiversity markets.
Eventually this led to a fully blown pilot scheme that saw 10 traprock property holders involved in a first-of-its-kind Regen Farmers Mutual Landscape Impact Program, a $70,000 program that encompassed various properties totalling 18,000ha of traprock country, which is elevated hilly land on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range.
The pilot was based on properties sharing a similar landscape.
What probably made it possible was the existence of the Traprock Group (originally the Traprock Wool Association), which already pulled together about 60 property owners whose properties had similar landscape.
The traprock area is considered one of the few remaining places where viable quanities of the Threatened Ecological Community of box gum grassy woodlands still survive. Now endangered, these woodlands were once endemic along the east coast of Australia. The traprock area is believed to be home to about half the surviving box gum grassy woodlands with a good percentage of this rated as in good conditionThis needs protecting.
The project was funded by the Queensland Government’s Land Restoration Fund, with support from the Southern Queensland Landscapes.
At the meeting Regen Farmers Mutual, the group that oversaw the pilot, was represented by Andrew Ward and Rohan Clarke. Southern Queensland Landscapes was represented by Paul McDonald and Alun Hoggett. Kym Wilson, the Regen advisor and agronomist with Carbon8 Fund was there, along with communications person Michelle Conkas. Andrew Ferrier was a prominent figure at the meeting as was Rick Humphries, wearing his hat of president of the Granite Belt Sustainable Action Network.
While it was a chance to explain the successes of the pilot program, the meeting was also the launch of the Traprock Landscape Regeneration Project, which Andrew Ferrier has given the very alliterative name, ‘Flourishing Fur, Feathers, Forests, Families and Farms’.
Andrew Ward, from Regen Farmers Mutual, said that from their start with the impact program (the pilot), participating farmers could create a regenerative landscape.
The vision was to regenerate the open box gum grassy woodland forest and native grasslands to a pre-cleared extent while gaining grazing, carbon and biodiversity outcomes.
“The idea of Regenerative Agricultural Landscapes is to be able to cross farm lines and make connections between properties and even river catchments and national parks. The result is something bigger than single farmers can do on their own and it makes a significant impact,” he said.
Regen Farmers Mutual information states that there are close to 50 species of plants listed as endangered, vulnerable or rare in the traprock project area including black grevillea and granite boronia, along with 27 rare or threatened animals including the koala, spotted-tailed quoll, regent honeyeater, swift parrot and border thick-tailed gecko.
Kym Wilson, who does the on-farm assessments for Regen Farmers Mutual, is a local landscape agronomist and is helping assess the financial opportunity for participants.
The traprock pilot is the first successful pilot project of its kind.
For Andrew Ferrier, the future looks promising.
“We know we’ve got product here but we need to be able to assess it, monitor it, verify what we’ve got, report on all that and then sell it,” he said.
Rick Humphries said he believed there were particular points about the traprock that would make the new program successful despite it being such a new field where everyone was still finding their way.
“It’s incredibly important that we secure what’s left of the box gum species and expand it in the future,” he said.
“And right here where the box gum grassy woodlands are, we have a group of people who already have a real identity together and a culture of innovation and caring for country.”
The Australian Government has made substantive commitments to reduce emissions and in the nation’s future there is undoubtedly a new industry for offsets in the shape of carbon credits and biodiversity credits.
Although no single farmer might be able to make a business case to offer credits on a big enough scale, a pool of landholders should be able to take their product to market to be bought by customers needing carbon credits or biodiversity credits. In that way, the farmers are both helping the environment and generating income.
Rick said, “People are beginning to understand that we’re losing species. There’s not enough money in the government budget to fix this, so there will have to be a market component. Biodiversity is a huge opportunity for farmers. In the long term, it will probably outweigh carbon.”
Traprock farmers involved in this project believe they are positioning themselves to be at the forefront of this young industry.
