When the farm meets the bush

A diversity of opinions were the highlight of the November 2006 Fenner Conference on the Environment, held 8-9 November.

Titled Integrating Agricultural and Environmental Imperatives for a Profitable and Sustainable Future, the conference brought together over 100 of Australia's leading experts in land management, agronomy, conservation, economics, science, policy and industry.

Over two days the conference heard the latest research from those improving the land, through revegetation and conservation and those making a living from the land. While the methods, and often the language, of these two groups differed, their overall aims were closely aligned.

Outcomes from the conference will be used to inform future research directions at CSIRO, where sustainability and resolving the tension between farming and conservation are a real focus.

Organisers of the event are working towards a paper on the conference, to be submitted to a journal early in 2007. They also intend to put together a document aimed at governments and agencies involved in land management.

The abstracts from the conference are available online at www.pi.csiro.au/FennerConference/index.htm, as will be any future papers.