05-07-2004

Throwing large sums of money at Australia's salinity problems is unlikely to be the most effective use of limited resources, a national research program has concluded.

Manager of the National Dryland Salinity Program (NDSP), Dr Richard Price gave this warning at the launch of a salinity survival kit in Melbourne today.

Following a decade of research, supported by State Governments, major rural research and development corporations and Federal organisations such as CSIRO and Land & Water Australia, and the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, NDSP has produced a kit comprising a series of reports, resource directories and other material, supported by a new web-site, to ensure state-of-the-art salinity information is accessible to managers at all levels.

'Six key messages emerged from 10 years of high level research undertaken by leading scientists in many disciplines, as well as many immediate practical results,' Dr Price commented.

'Salinity costs are significant, and rising, so with limited resources, responses must be strategic.

'Long-term, policy makers must identify assets where public investment will give the 'biggest bang for the public buck', and concentrate on those. Across our landscapes, we really need to think through whether the best strategy is prevention, rehabilitation or learning to live productively with some level of salinity.

Dr Price said that since the inception of NDSP in 1993, salinity knowledge and understanding had advanced dramatically, and could help determine the appropriate strategy.

The combination of research effort across many scientific and social disciplines had put salinity into perspective for both urban and rural sectors of the economy.

He commented that profitable options for reversing salinity were still lacking for most regions, giving little incentive for some land managers to discard traditional practices. A greater range of profitable plant-based salinity solutions needed to be explored through partner organisations such as the CRC for Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity urgently to find attractive alternatives.

Vegetation management would remain the key to managing water resources, although cost of revegetation required careful analysis, he suggested.

"We now know that mass planting of trees needs to be thought through more thoroughly as there can be a down-side under some circumstances," he said. "Also, we must think more broadly about the role of perennial vegetation beyond the concept of trees.

"Lack of capacity is an important, but secondary constraint to managing salinity," he added. "As a nation we need to facilitate knowledge and positive attitudes to dealing with salinity, and identify the lack of skills capacity in key institutions. But without profitable solutions, the notion of capacity building can be very frustrating to some members of the community."

Dr Price said NDSP was acknowledged as a major catalyst in the Commonwealth Government decision in 2000 to fund the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality.

He noted the recommendations from the House of Representatives Standing Committee's recently published report on salinity and science, that the National Dryland Salinity Program be continued as a matter of urgency, and expanded to address irrigation and urban salinity.

"This and other recommendationsalign with our experience over the last decade," he said. "It is vital that strategic planning at the national scale is addressed, learning from the lessons of the last decade."

Breaking Ground: Key Findings from 10 years of Australia's National Dryland Salinity Program summarises a decade of research and recommends both tactical and strategic future research and development priorities.

For further information please contact:

Please contact Land & Water Australia
Email: land&wateraustralia@lwa.gov.au
Phone: 02 6263 6000