Conference to explore policy, law, science and management issues of the Western Australian rangelands: a joint venture between the Conservation Council of WA, Rangelands NRM WA and the Western Australian Environmental Defenders Office.

The two-day conference is proposed to be held in Kalgoorlie in May or June 2010 and will  

• raise general (including urban) community awareness of rangeland sustainability issues,
• explore a new vision for the rangelands in a dialogue with all the stakeholders,
• test the level of consensus possible between different interest groups, and
• inform government about new policy directions that are broadly supported.

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First announcement: inaugural meeting of China–Australia Network for Grassland Farming Systems
 

Sustainable Grassland Management in China and Australia
 

Australia and China share similar geographical features, each with 400m ha of grazing lands of low to moderate productivity, subject to short growing seasons and facing similar problems in utilising grasslands sustainably. Cooperation in forages, grassland resource management, rehabilitation of degraded landscapes, ecosystem restoration and improving farmer incomes, between these two large countries has increased in recent years. There are now several major grassland projects in China, some with Australian involvement and an aim of the meeting is to have presentations on those being planned or in progress.
This bilateral meeting will focus on sustainable grassland management, and will serve as a forum for people to share their research results, discuss problems, new developments and future cooperation. Of particular interest will be how grassland resource and associated livestock production problems are being solved in each country. Are new principles emerging that would have wider applications? Grasslands include all those wider related issues, important in sustaining this major resource.
 

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