L.SFP.1007 - Environmental Credentials for Grassfed Beef - Tree cover theme development

Summary

This project contributes the tree cover theme for the Environmental Credentials for Australian Beef project, which is developing a single online platform for grassfed beef producers to demonstrate sustainability to their markets using remote sensing and additional information. The methodology comprised a desk review for background scoping research, a series of co-design working groups, and synthesis of their deliberations and team investigations into a design brief.

Trees, woodlands and forests in Australian grazing systems provide important services to the Australian beef industry. These contributions include productivity, profitability and animal welfare benefits including the provision of shade and shelter for stock; improving soil structure, moisture and quality; increasing nutrient cycling; improving rainfall use efficiency and improving waterways and water quality.

Tree cover also plays important roles for biodiversity and landscape function, salinity management, offsetting greenhouse emissions and amenity value. The role of forests and woodlands in climate regulation has also been confirmed, where cooler, wetter conditions are correlated with tree or woody vegetation cover. Retaining trees and regrowth on farm can also contribute to the overall reduction in carbon footprint of beef production through sequestration and storage of carbon in trees. Management of tree cover will be an important consideration for the industry’s 2030 carbon neutral commitment.

Around 50% of all Australian farms carry beef cattle, making this the most common and widely dispersed agricultural activity in Australia. Producers running beef cattle manage more than 77% of the total area of agricultural land in Australia. Beef properties are thus a significant part of Australia’s overall environmental stewardship by land area.

A Tree Cover credential is proposed to enable beef producers to voluntarily opt-in to be recognised for their tree, forest and woodland stewardship which uses remote sensing (satellite data) to verify their Tree Cover status. Producers will also be able to access resources and guidelines that support their ongoing demonstration of Tree Cover credentials on farm.

Objectives

1. Develop the design brief for the Tree Cover Theme for Environmental Credentials for Australian Beef (Smart Farms) project ready for translation into an on-line platform. Theme designs will include indicators, measuring tools/approaches, benchmarks and learning resources. The platform design must be suitable for producer self-assessment of environmental performance. The process to achieve this will include:

a) Coordinate and manage up to five co-design sessions with beef producers and relevant industry and other stakeholders to identify the scope and design of the solution for the Tree Cover Theme.

b) Select, collate, review and update relevant Tree Cover theme materials for inclusion in the online platform, and incorporating co-design working groups and technical peer review feedback into the platform design brief for the Tree Cover Theme.

c) Produce a design brief for the technical builder of the online platform, from the co-design process. Design brief to cover (minimum):
i. Technical brief including any remote sensing or decision support component requirements.
ii. Brief for online learning.

2. Support the environmental credentials platform. developer in integrating the tree cover theme into the on-line platform.

Key findings

• A platform design brief for the tree cover theme was successfully developed. The design required inclusion of a definition, measures and indicators, benchmarks, gaps in learning resources.

• An environmental credential for tree cover should be consistent with, and link to (where possible) the proposed Australian Biodiversity Certification Scheme’s vegetation condition for biodiversity scoring method.

• Beef producers participating in co-design groups were highly engaged in the process and had strong ownership in potential project outcomes.

• ‘Design principles’ that emerged from discussions with the tree cover theme working group include the need for an online sustainability tool that is intuitive, easy to use and open access, avoids duplication of effort and builds on (and/or links to) existing initiatives, and addresses privacy and data accuracy concerns. Also noted was the importance of appropriate caveats signalling the limitations associated with relying solely on remote/desktop assessments for tree cover.

• There is a risk of ‘disconnect’ between Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the Project, which may limit the value of the work undertaken in Stage 1.

Benefits to industry

This project has the potential to enable the following significant outcomes:

• Australian grassfed beef producers are rewarded for demonstrating their environmental credentials to customers, consumers and the community.

• Australian grassfed beef producers are able to undertake self-directed learning to improve performance across five key environmental themes; and

• Australian grassfed beef producers are able to respond to other market drivers (for example but not limited to customer requirements, accessing farm loans or schemes etc.) requiring demonstrable environmental credentials.

MLA action

MLA will continue to maintain and improve the Environmental Credentials platform for the immediate future. This will help build a user base and demonstrate the value of the platform for producers and end users of sustainability data. MLA plan to continue to make improvements to the platform to enhance the user experience, value, and utility of the platform.

Future research

Further research will be useful on:

• evaluation of the platform some time after release

• research on market demand

• research on verification and certification

• expansion to other agricultural industries.