Integrating production and natural resource management on mixed farms in eastern Australia: The cost of conservation in agricultural landscapes

A simple scenario and modelling approach to farm design was used to investigate the potential for improving on-farm conservation outcomes in three mixed grain–livestock farms in eastern Australia. With an increasing emphasis on multiple benefits from land management in agricultural landscapes, and current policy frameworks governing natural resource management and agriculture in Australia, much of the cost of conservation is expected to be borne by farmers. This is especially so in terms of production opportunity costs, which go largely unrecognised (and uncosted) in landscape planning. Simple landscape ecology design principles were applied to existing farm configurations in a scenario process to improve protection and connectivity of natural parts of the landscape, and the direct (infrastructure) and indirect (loss of production) costs were calculated. A 3 stage approach was taken to develop scenarios: (1) identify major threatening processes and mitigating actions to prevent further decline in natural resources; (2) identify opportunities for enhancing landscape configuration in respect of the landscape ecology principles outlined below; and (3) explore agricultural opportunities to offset financial losses to conservation. Depending on the specific agricultural activity mix and ecological condition of farms, small changes to the production base can have large impacts on farm enterprise profitability. Modelled economic impacts show that there are substantial opportunity income losses from applying conservation-based scenarios, and that there are limited opportunities to offset these with changed farming practices that do not create other environmental problems.