Soil and water salinity in Queensland: the prospect of ecological sustainability through the implementation of land clearing policy

Abstract

In Queensland, legislation has recently been enacted that outlines minimum standards for the retention of native vegetation in bioregions and prescribes Performance Requirements for the maintenance of biodiversity and ecological processes, and the prevention of land degradation. It also details Acceptable Solutions to satisfy the Performance Requirements. It this paper we analyse the links between science and action to determine whether the legislation and associated policy are likely to lead to sound management decisions being made for prevention of land and water salinity. We also compared the requirements for biodiversity protection relative to those for salinity control. For salinity (and biodiversity) the minimum standards and Acceptable Solutions in the legislation have a sound technical basis. The main challenge in implementing the salinity Performance Requirements will be provision of information required to assess salinity risk at appropriate scales. This information is: (1) salinity hazard assessment at catchment/regional scale planning scale; (2) technical information to support a sub-catchment scale implementation; (3) guidelines, procedures and local expertise for interpretation of salinity hazard at the property scale. In the process of assessing clearing applications there is no formal role for planners or decision makers at the sub-catchment level who could play an important role in coordinating information gathering for land managers developing clearing applications. There are also limited pathways for accessing relevant scientific information and expertise at an appropriate level to provide support for land managers. We suggest that this situation is likely to limit the successful implementation of the policy for preventing land and water salinity. The minimum standard of 30% retained vegetation would provide similar protection for biodiversity and salinity control at the bioregional level. In smaller areas (e.g. an individual property) however, there could be contrasting requirements for the retention of vegetation.