Australia and other developed countries could learn a lot from some developing countries about how communities can work to address pressing needs caused by climate change, says the new Director of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Institute for Land Water and Society, Professor Max Finlayson.
With considerable overseas experience, Professor Finlayson believes that successful environmental management, which includes addressing the effects of climate change, can only occur if socio-economic, production and social justice issues are also addressed.
“And this involves all levels of government and related agencies, from local village and regional to national and international groups,” he said.
“I believe agricultural landuse and resource exploitation is pushing the environment too far in many places. But aggressively confronting farmers is not the answer: all stakeholders involved in land management – from top to bottom – have to work on joint solutions to our environmental problems, especially as climate change causes further rapid changes to our environment.
“There has to be a balance, or even new balances. For example, in Australia we have to continue farming but not at the risk of further running down our land. International reports on water, agriculture and the environment show that the Murray Darling Basin is among the more rundown landscapes in the world.
“Climate change will increase pressures on agricultural production through rising salt in our soils and problems caused by inefficient water management and river regulation and excessive tree clearing. We have to address these issues as local communities, catchment management authorities, state and federal policy makers and agencies and in international arenas such as the upcoming climate change meeting in Bali for the sake of our nation.
”Signing the Kyoto protocol is only one step – adapting to climate change locally is probably more important.”
A more pressing and immediate issue of climate change for Australia, says Professor Finlayson, is the effect of rising sea levels and the tendency to more extreme weather patterns in Asia.
“This could greatly increase the number of ‘climate change refugees’ as increased rainfall and violent storms inundate low lying parts of Asia and force millions of people to flee their homes. This has been raised before, but we not answered where these displaced people go.
“Food and water are priorities for human health and livelihood which has major implications for our own standards of living and our environment as we also deal with climate change. Australia is seen as a wealthy, relatively progressive nation. We need to look at these global scenarios now to plan for our future – how will we respond to major migration to what are perceived as ‘safer’ places?”
Max Finlayson comes to CSU from the International Water Managment Institute, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, with projects across Asia and Africa.
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