Development of the framework took place as part of the Pastoral Lands Reform project initiated by the WA government in response to the Office of the Auditor. Institutional Capacity – This was addressed through funding from the Pastoral Land Reform Project (Land Condition and Monitoring Workflow) in September 2020.
Linkages among relevant parties
Relevant legislative and policy elements
However, the commissioner must notify the PLB in writing of the terms of a proposed SCN before issuing the notice (LA Act s138). More information on these aspects of the LA and SLC laws can be found in Appendix A.
Strategic vision statement for the pastoral estate
Scope of issues to address
The environmental target developed by the ISC and IRG for the vicarage will therefore be the primary target to be achieved. Maintain or increase the pastoral industry's contribution to community welfare at regional (eg employment) and state-wide level (eg animal welfare).
Risk-based decision-making
Risk-based pastoral management cycle
For any issue that is of sufficient risk to require formal management (which will include each of the relevant acts described above), a risk management cycle will need to be developed according to Figure 4. The following section describes how this cycle has been developed for soil condition management. The management cycle depicted in Figure 4 has the regular feedback loop at the lease level to ensure that activities on the lease that affect land condition are tailored to prevailing environmental conditions and current performance against land condition standards.
Best practice advice and support: Tenants will be provided with information and advice on the condition of their land, relevant standards and best management practices and options appropriate to their region. Lease Management: Tenants are expected to use best management practices to maintain and/or improve the condition of the land to acceptable levels. Best practices will be promoted through a range of incentives, such as the potential to develop an accreditation/certification system that can help secure grants or loans, or 'green tick' crops that give them superior market value and rental valuation.
Lease monitoring: The level of direct monitoring will be based on the results of the risk assessment process. Lease Level Evaluation and Reporting: Evaluations of monitoring data against regional condition standards will be conducted and results will be communicated to tenants, PLB and the Commissioner.
Developing land condition conceptual standards
However, there are a number of soil condition assessments and studies for rangelands in WA and for other areas of the world, plus several pastoral/rangeland monitoring guides available to use as a solid basis for their development. The landscape characteristics and potential indicators that formed the basis of each of the conceptual standards for land condition were adapted from technical reports generated for the monitoring and assessment of rangelands in Australia (DPIRD rangelands web pages), USA (Herrick et al. Any declines in land condition for key overgraze (the most pastorally important grazing types within a particular region) from the target area (Figure 7) are small and temporary, easy to restore with conservative stock management or targeted staking, and favorable.
Suboptimal (Land condition between threshold and limit – contravening LA Act s108 but not contravening SLC Act s32). Decline in soil condition of key grasslands below the threshold is not expected to be permanent and therefore possible to restore with conservative management (for example by staking/conservative cover), but full recovery may still take many years and. Widespread decline in soil condition with relatively large areas of key pastures in poor condition and/or limited amounts in good condition, with bare soil and accelerated erosion often evident.
The DPIRD Land Condition Workstream develops and documents the regional level standards for each rangeland region (e.g. Fletcher et al. 2022). A critical part of the risk-based management system is the monitoring, assessment and compliance system that must be used to ensure that risk levels for the condition of the land and other related features of the lease remain at an acceptable level.
Regional-level monitoring and standards
The rangeland monitoring, assessment and compliance systems to be adopted should also reflect the extent and diversity of landscapes in WA's rangelands. It will also have to take into account the changes in rent-level monitoring that have occurred in recent decades and the prospect of new monitoring technologies. The overall risk-based approach includes monitoring and assessment processes at two geographic scales.
Lease-level monitoring and assessment
Relative risk levels will be calculated for all leases within each region using historical condition information, any previous DPIRD or PLB recommendations, remote sensing data sources, station information submitted annually and the length of time that by a formal Area Condition Assessment (RCA) completed in relation to rent and other regional considerations, including the assessment of rents to assist in the development of regional standards. Based on the above data, a list of "high priority" leases is developed and refined based on discussions with DPIRD and DPLH staff about regional-level issues and, where appropriate, input from identified tenants. To determine whether the lessee of a high priority lease is adequately addressing the risks of land conditions, a formal land-based RCA will be completed.
If the RCA assessment of land condition status combined with the evaluation of land management effectiveness given previous seasonal conditions indicates that the key pastures on that lease are currently above, and likely to remain above the threshold, the RCA will be forwarded to the PLB for notice. Where the RCA shows that one or more key pastures on the lease are currently below limit, but there is a documented mitigation plan and robust and clear evidence that suitable mitigation actions have already been taken and/or there have been adequate levels of remediation, no additional action may not be required by the Commissioner. Where the condition status is above the limit, but the risk of further decline below this level is high given current land management effectiveness, the.
Where the status is close to or below the limit and suitable mitigation methods have not already been implemented and/or further deterioration of one or more key pastures on the lease condition occurs, or where there is a requirement for urgent action, specific orders will be given. given by the Commissioner, most likely under an SCN. The SCN will specify the mitigation actions to be taken for the specific parcels of land involved and the level of reclamation (based on compliance with the regional level standards to the satisfaction of the Commissioner) that will be required before it will be removed.
Land management effectiveness
Governance: Is there a comprehensive management plan already in place and the results and effectiveness of these arrangements also independently reviewed or audited. Cattle and Pasture Spell Distribution: Has there been a regular spelling of significant pastures and active shifts of livestock between pastures. Water Points: Are there enough water points to spread grazing pressure and is there minimal grazing damage or erosion around each of the water points.
Fencing: Is there sufficient fencing (or another suitable program) to directly control grazing pressure on prime pastures. More detailed descriptions of each level of land management effectiveness for these criteria are presented in Appendix D. These criteria are consistent with the Guidelines for Good Pastoral Land Management developed by DPLH (2020).
The above set of criteria is also consistent with what will be assessed by third party certification/accreditation schemes. It will also help to resolve information asymmetry between lenders and borrowers, so that tenants will be less likely to set unrealistic grazing regimes to service loans issued in anticipation of business performance beyond the country's sustainable limits.
Risk-based lease evaluation and decision matrix for land condition
Regional land condition standards
Annual land monitoring program
Increased use of satellite-derived measurements of fractional coverage (percentage of bare soil and flatness of vegetation cover), vegetation indices, and tree canopy cover (see Holmes and Ramzi 2022). Ground-based data collection to calibrate and validate fractional coverage data to increase accuracy and use of remote data for land condition estimation. Shift to the use of robust quantitative on-ground measurements of pasture condition based on the density, population demographics and vitality of indicator species within each major pasture.
Each of these monitoring improvements is the subject of separate studies that, when completed, will allow greater use of site-level quantitative measures of rangeland condition to assess the status of each key rangeland.
Annual risk-based lease assessment
Lease assessment process
Land condition risk level and regulatory response
Assessing the risk for other Acts and ESD requirements
The tenant must maintain the native grassland and other vegetation on the land under the lease to the satisfaction of the board. A pastoral tenant must control declared pests on the land under the lease in accordance with the Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act 2007 and to the satisfaction of the council.”. Vegetation cover – the level of total vegetation cover, given seasonal conditions, is at or above the level expected from pastures in good condition. Soil stability – the areas of bare soil are stable and do not contribute to accelerated erosion; there is no visible scuffing or plate erosion; vulnerable areas have a high density of perennials.
Productivity - CCC is 50-70% of PCC, but this value may vary by region or type of pasture. Plant cover – the level of total plant cover, given seasonal conditions, is at the level expected from pastures in poor condition. Productivity - CCC is less than 50% of PCC, but this value may vary by region or type of pasture.
Much of the existing degradation in the lease is historical and is typical of large numbers of sheep in the past. Land in poor condition is mostly more productive river frontage and thus has a disproportionate impact on the productive capacity of the lease. The latest RCA found that the condition of leased land was largely stable, although there was a decrease in land in good condition (72%), with 20% in good condition and 8% in poor condition (changes +/- 5% are counted within the error range used in the estimation method).
The lessee was then asked to maintain stock numbers at or below 1,500 VE until they could demonstrate to the satisfaction of the PLB that the condition of the pasture on the lease had improved.
