Sustainable Pathways to CN30 : Millstone Report

The Carbon Storage Partnership (CSP) is a multi-party transdisciplinary consortium developing knowledge and technologies required to underpin profitable, sustainable and socially acceptable pathways to a carbon-neutral livestock sector by 2030. A literature review to determine how grazing management impacts soil carbon, biodiversity, livestock production, profitability and ecosystem services in Australian grazing systems is in the final stages of completion. We are continuing the expansion of this literature review by including additional articles that determine qualitative factors, such as farmer cues for making decisions. Results suggest that across sites and production systems, grazing management (1) has no significant impact on soil carbon or long-term ground cover, and (2) may positively impact pasture production when conducted at low intensities. When completed, outcomes of the review will be used to develop recommendations of regionally specific grazing management approaches to achieve beneficial and synergistic environmental and production outcomes and will partially inform the mitigation pathways to be modelled in the next 12 months. Nineteen semi-structured interviews have been completed, with a further five to be undertaken across the four NSW agroecological zones, namely, Southern Tablelands, Central Tablelands, Northern Tablelands and Western NSW. While these interviews are behind schedule, they are being done in a more thorough way so that the data collected is suitable for scientific publication. Preliminary findings from the interviews will be presented in the next Milestone Report. The soil carbon data from the long-term experiments has been analysed and a publication is being prepared. The CSP Communications and Extension plan has been reviewed and updated, and a listing of all activities has been provided, with engagements totalling around 1.7 million to date. In addition, a range of specific activity outcomes have been included here, such as an industry webinar on management strategies for improving soil carbon, found via this link: International Fertiliser Society, a draft fact sheet and an abstract for the NRM Knowledge Conference to be held next month in Western Australia. Development of a Carbon Storage Partnership website is progressing, with draft content contained in the appendices. The 10 case study farms for biophysical, economic, greenhouse gas emissions, natural capital and biodiversity have been selected. Data collection sheets have been forwarded to each case study and collection of this data will commence as soon as Human Ethics approval, through UTAS, has been received. A protocol for biodiversity and natural capital analyses, along with a draft protocol for the economic assessment of biodiversity and natural capital have been completed. The draft protocol for economic assessment will be reviewed and updated as required to meet project deliverables.