Technical expert group for balance of tree and grass cover

Summary

Within the environment section of the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework, the RMAC appointed Sustainability Steering Group (SSG) has requested the input of technical experts across disciplines to provide advice on the most appropriate indicators and ways to measure them for the priority area of balance of tree and grass cover within the framework. This priority area has interlinkages with other priority areas, in particular climate.

In addition the project will continue to engage stakeholders within and external to industry to progress a more cooperative approach to the highly politicised area of vegetation management.

Objectives

The Consultant will achieve the following objective(s) to MLA's reasonable satisfaction:

• Key deliverables for this project are:
  • Develop a definition of deforestation in an Australian context relevant to grazing industries to assist in policy and research setting, including thinning
  • Explore if there are more useful measures than setting aside land for conservation for both demonstrating the importance of managing landscapes and productivity
  • Develop a measure that is relevant in the north to ensuring that regrowth does not compromise ground cover and soil structure
    A measure to be developed for healthy grassland systems at regionally relevant levels that can be aggregated if possible
  • Continue and build on the stakeholder group formed during a recent review of what deforestation means in Australia and use this group to test the indicator recommendations from the expert group and progress the work undertaken by Point Advisory with McDonald's.