A salty problem that won't go away

In order to begin to arrest the crisis we must strategically manage recharge across whole catchments. Given the extent of clearing, only a major broadscale revegetation effort has any hope of averting a catastrophe.

The big trick is going to be ensuring our solutions are effective in biophysical terms, as well as commercially viable and complementary to our other environmental management objectives. It will not be easy, but it must be done.

Sustainable Landscapes, Sustainable Livelihoods

No single land-use will solve the problem of salinity and halt loss of native biodiversity in our lands and waters. We need to develop and deploy a suite of novel land uses matched to the diverse climate, soils, and hydrological conditions of the continent. In combination, these will need to deliver leakage rates past the root zone that mimic those of the indigenous vegetation.

With the area of land affected by salinity set to increase no matter what we do, rehabilitation with salt-tolerant crops and pastures will be a useful tool in the minimisation of damage. However, although they are fashionable, saltland farming and other ideas for commercially using the salt ‘resource’ will make very little difference to rising watertables and the saline pollution of our inland waters.

Organic farming too, while good for the earth in so many ways, is not necessarily effective in managing salinity. Organic farmers, however, are often enthusiastic environmentalists, and this together with the increasing profitability of organic agriculture may result in the on-farm conservation efforts so critical to controlling recharge.

Preventing salinisation requires radical change to land use. The CSIRO’s A Revolution in Land Use published last year identifies a range of approaches.

Eventually, the land will look a lot different to the simple stands of grain and paddocks we have become accustomed to. The rural Australia of the future is likely to be a mosaic of conserved and restored native bush, agro-forestry enterprises, native trees, and perennial pastures grown for a range of commercial uses to stop the salt tide from rising.

The opportunities for innovation, improved efficiency and regional employment in the transition to sustainable land use are very promising. According to the Joint Venture Agroforestry Program, for instance, a national farm forestry industry would create up to 40,000 jobs, primarily in regional areas, to service a market worth around $20 billion annually.

Just as importantly as fostering new industries, we also need to start appropriately valuing the goods and services produced by healthy ecosystems. In permitting the destruction of our woodlands and forests, we have ignored the loss of natural amenities – such as water quality and climatic stability – which follow. Its full valuation might be a key means of protecting remnant bush and permitting ecological recovery in traditional farming areas.

The National Salinity Action Plan – Will it Work?

Recognising the national crisis, the Premiers and Prime Minister have agreed to a National Action Plan on Salinity and Water Quality, and committed $1.4 billion over seven years to enacting it. This is an important initiative – an essential first step.

The Plan commits States, Territories and the Commonwealth to investing in salinity and water quality improvement through regional catchment management authorities. This commitment to capacity building at the regional scale is crucial to the delivery of real change on the ground.

However, governments must commit to a sustained, more accountable programme of investment of a magnitude never previously contemplated in this country.