By Mr Jim McDonald, Chairman, Namoi Catchment Management Authority
This paper to be presented at the Sustainability Business conference in May 2012 contends current attempts at ‘sustainable’ landscape management may be inappropriate. Evidence suggests that current levels of human activity are substantially modifying, in cases degrading, our natural resources, their operating systems, and the eco-system services they supply.
For people in agriculture, who manage the greatest extent of our natural resources, being ‘sustainable’ is not only important for ongoing viability but for the broader community.
Traditional natural resource management relies on the assumption that all natural systems respond to our use in a predictable, linear and manageable fashion. We expect our resources use will not substantially alter these systems, or put at risk the provision of their vital eco-system services, as they can cope in perpetuity with sustained use, our resources use will be ‘sustainable’.
By using resilience thinking the Namoi CMA is testing whether, at a landscape scale, the cumulative impacts of disparate businesses and industries can rely on this historical and strategic assumption. Evidence is accumulating that natural systems do not act this way – they absorb the same impact for so long and then change into a different state when they cross a threshold.
Our resilience thinking focuses on thresholds, or points of transformation, between alternate states of a system and identifies sixteen thresholds of concern for the Namoi Catchment. Accepting that thresholds exist, we can set targets and design interventions to maintain or increase the distance from these thresholds. Importantly, resilience accepts that people are part of the natural system, where things always change, tipping points occur and going back may be sometimes desirable, but not always possible.
We contend a more functional definition of sustainability is one that maintains our natural systems with ‘the ability to cope with change and to keep functioning in much the same kind of way’ (Brian Walker), in perpetuity.
Mr Jim McDonald
Taking Care of Business: Sustainable Transformation Conference
Radisson Resort, Gold Coast – 21 & 22 May, 2012