Can pastoral grazing management satisfy endorsed conservation objectives in arid Western Australia?

Broad conservation objectives for the lands of Western Australia have been endorsed by State Government. The implications of particular objectives are discussed for pastoral land within the sector of the arid zone dominated by winter rainfall, in the light of current knowledge on the essential ecological processes, the status of flora and fauna, and degradation problems resulting from post-settlement land usage. Experience of the inter-relationships between grazing stock and resource management in arid winter rainfall areas suggests that, in order to achieve consistent, sustained animal production, the producer's land management objectives must be aimed at conserving and improving key perennial elements of the vegetation. Perennial pastures exist as many different suites of palatable native perennials (mainly shrubs plus some grasses). They can be promoted as a consequence of tactical grazing, protection or mechanical regeneration and reseeding of degraded assemblages. Poor though the research base is, management for quality perennial forage reserves should largely satisfy conservation objectives as applicable to such environments, while conferring distinct economic benefits for the individual pastoral business. The environmental progress of such management can be measured and demonstrated at range monitoring sites which have begun to provide detailed information on the vegetation and soils of entire regions of the arid zone. Measures of the extent and severity of accelerated soil loss and changes in composition and density of perennial communities provide the most practical and easily comprehended measures of pastoral impact. Other measures, such as gauging extinctions of changes in species diversity, are neither sensitive nor reliable as indicators of environmental degradation, system stability or vegetation recovery in the region. The popular conception that formal conservation objectives for arid pastoral lands can be achieved only by the removal of grazing has little empirical basis. It should be viewed as an understandable prejudice which reflects the degree to which pastoral misuse has discredited conservation-oriented pastoralism as a legitimate land use. The whole pastoral industry of the region thus needs to embrace perennial pasture management, and to publicize its problems and successes through range monitoring or other evidence of conservation action, in order to redress its poor community image in land management.