Integrating High Country Pastoral and Biodiversity Values

A farmer-university cooperative research project

The current interpretation and implementation of the Crown Pastoral Land Act (CPLA) has tended to view conservation of native biodiversity and economic production as incompatible activities, with restoration of land to full Crown ownership and management as the only option to sustain native biodiversity. Alternative approaches such as covenants have been largely ignored. However, no actual data has been presented to support the current view. In this project we aim to address this by:

1. Quantifying the economic and conservation costs and benefits of different land management strategies at a whole property scale for three representative high country properties.
2. Determining the optimum way to include an integrated approach to sustainable land management within a whole farm management plant and appropriate covenant.
3. Disseminating the results of this work through the farming community.

These web pages provide an overview of this research project with information on the projects methods, outcomes (including links to project newsletters and publications), and contacts for further information.