Environmental stewardship, sustainable land manage

“Now, for the first time in its billions of years of history, our planet is protected by far-seeing sentinels, able to anticipate danger from the distant future–a comet on a collision course, or global warming–and devise schemes for doing something about it. The planet has finally grown its own nervous system: us.”

Queensland farmers have welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement it will commit $200 million to continue the Reef Rescue program for another five years.

Since it began in 2008, the program has proved successful at reducing soil and chemical runoff into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says farmers are finding news ways of working to improve the environment and their productivity.

“Already, what we’ve been able to achieve under this program is the equivalent of a million wheelbarrows of stuff, of pollutants, not ending up in the Great Barrier Reef. That’s a great result all round; great for the reef, great for agricultural productivity.”