Abstract for presentation at Biodiversity Extinction Crisis Conference - A Pacific Response

Management of total grazing pressure is critical to ensuring both the ecological and economic viability of the rangelands of western New South Wales. Efforts to reduce total grazing pressure often represent a cost to landholders through lost income or “pest” management costs. Government or philanthropic support for conservation management can go some way towards meeting these costs, however, the enormous scale and ongoing nature of such measures makes it questionable whether this approach alone can be sufficient.

In order to maintain the active management required to conserve these heavily altered ecosystems, there is a clear need for land uses that can achieve conservation outcomes at the same time as providing livelihood for landholders. Conservation through Sustainable Use (CSU) approaches may be able to assist in this goal by facilitating the sustainable harvest of native animals and plants in a manner that places value on them and creates economic incentives to conserve these species and their habitats.

This paper will present the theory and practice involved in CSU activities that the FATE Program has been exploring in conjunction with the Barrier Area Rangecare Group, north of Broken Hill in far western NSW. This research draws on notions of common property/common pool resource systems with a particular focus on generating greater landholder involvement in the existing kangaroo industry. The focus on kangaroos is due to the existence of a mature harvesting industry and the potential for encouraging conservation actions by:
- providing landholders with alternative income and land use options to sheep or cattle;
- making commercial shooting into a more flexible tool for targeted total grazing pressure management; and
- creating incentives to undertake conservation actions that enhance habitat for wildlife.