1. Overview

Agriculture represents a diverse and vital sector of Australia¡¯s economy, with responsibility for the production, processing and marketing of food, fibre and ornamental products. There is growing interest in the environmental performance of agriculture, coupled with the industry's ability to provide high quality products to both domestic and international markets.

There is much that primary producers can do, and are doing, to promote environmental performance and Quality Assurance in agriculture through the adoption of any of a range of voluntary environmental management approaches. These include industry Codes of Practice, Best Management Practice guidelines, or any number of environmental certification and labelling initiatives.

Primary producers choose the particular approach they wish to adopt (i.e. adoption of industry codes of practice, EUREPGAP or other assurance programs), based on business priorities of market access and productivity; community, industry and market expectations; and the landscape/environment needs at both farm and catchment scale.

In recent years there has been growing interest from rural industries and governments in the potential of environmental management systems (EMS) to provide a credible mechanism to bring these various approaches together at the farm scale, in a management system that is internationally recognised.

An EMS is a systematic approach that can be used by any enterprise or organisation to continuously improve its business management to achieve efficiencies and better environmental outcomes. With respect to primary industries this implies improved agricultural production systems together with improved natural resource management outcomes.

The benefits of EMS in agriculture can include:

• improved management of the environmental impacts of farming;
  
• better natural resource outcomes and sustainable agriculture;
  
• potential to respond to market access issues;
  
• improved community perceptions of farming;
  
• adaptive management processes to build on and streamline a range of complementary processes eg Property Management Planning (PMP), Quality Assurance (QA), Best Management Practice (BMP), etc; and
  
• improved business efficiency.

However, if EMS is going to provide primary producers with an effective and recognised process for managing these issues, then existing industry/community initiatives need to be built on and the range of factors that influence or threaten its success need to be addressed.

In October 2002, the NRM Ministerial Council endorsed "Australia's National Framework for Environmental Management Systems (EMS) in Agriculture: Partnerships for Sustainable Agriculture" - Supporting voluntary adoption of EMS in Australian Agriculture".

The Framework identified the potential benefits of and barriers to successful EMS adoption and proposed partnerships within and between governments, industry organisations and research and development corporations, individual primary producers, regional bodies and the community, to address them.

In endorsing the Framework, the NRM Ministerial Council requested the development of a 5-year EMS Implementation Plan to implement the Framework and to address industry concerns that the current momentum on EMS be maintained and supported.

This Plan outlines a range of specific actions that governments are prepared to undertake in partnership with communities and industry (where appropriate) aimed at supporting the voluntary adoption of EMS across Australia. These include:

1. Education and Information

• provision of natural resources information at relevant scales;
  
• development and maintenance of environmental databases and publication of environmental information;
  
• easy to access legislative requirements, assessments or summaries;
  
• information on good agricultural practices that reflects the latest scientific advice, market trends and environmental issues.
  
• the establishment of appropriate partnerships that will build industry, community and individual capacity for EMS development and implementation.

2. Facilitation and Coordination

• industry bodies, governments and catchment/regional bodies have a role to ensure clear linkages between national, state and regional/catchment processes (standards and target setting) and on-farm management processes.

3. Environmental Policy

• coordinated policy approaches within and between governments and from property to national scales

4. Research and Development:

• support for coordinated approaches to EMS and EMS related research;
  
• ensure that findings from pilot programs and case studies are disseminated.

A range of government initiatives are already established that aim to encourage the uptake and test the value of EMS. At the Australian Government level these include:

• Partnerships with national agri-industry, community and Landcare through the industry/community EMS Steering Committee;
  
• EMS Pilots;
  
• EMS incentives;
  
• National EMS Training Package; and
  
• Eco-efficiency Agreements.

The following activities are also underway within individual states and territories:

• Compendium of environmental legislation;
  
• Partnerships with state based Farmers Federation organisations;
  
• Provision of information on international developments with EMS and potential relevance to farmers;
  
• Presentation of EMS training courses;
  
• Articulating how to incorporate native biodiversity into EMS;
  
• Projects targeting each tier of EMS;
  
• Engaging agricultural industries in EMS, predominantly through case/pilot studies;
  
• Facilitating a broad consistency of on-farm EMS; and
  
• Formation of state-level, National Framework implementation committees / task forces

In supporting the Framework, the NRM Ministerial Council has clearly indicated that the role for governments is in a supportive and catalytic role, responding where appropriate to the requirements of industry and community organisations. It is not about requiring the mandatory adoption of EMS. Rather, it is recognised that in this formative stage Governments have a role to partner with and position industry and community to meet emerging demands of increased productivity, market access and improved natural resources management — through approaches such as EMS and other assurance schemes.

While supporting the Framework and the development of an Implementation Plan, governments acknowledge that the use of EMS in agriculture is not a silver bullet and will not necessarily meet the needs and aspiration of all primary producers or industries. It is also acknowledged that the EMS Implementation Plan is just one initiative aimed at contributing to the sustainable management of natural resources. However, it is expected that by supporting farm-level EMS and EMS-related activities the Implementation Plan will help to consolidate existing government and community investment in catchment level action that will result in on-ground outcomes. For instance, as a systems approach, an EMS can be readily integrated with other on-farm management processes such that implementation of the Plan can assist the efficiency and uptake of a wider range of on-farm activities such as best practice management, codes of practice, as well as food safety, occupational health and safety and quality assurance processes. Furthermore, as a process standard, an EMS is not mutually exclusive from, but works best when it is informed and underpinned by such codes of practice or performance guidelines.

In addition, it is also expected that the Plan will help ensure links can be made between catchment and regional targets and appropriate on-farm action. For example, it is the management decisions made at the farm-level that have the potential to contribute to natural resource management targets set at catchment and regional levels through the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality and the Natural Heritage Trust, provided landscape-scale targets are translated into relevant and practical property-level actions that can be profitable and lead to environmental improvements. Attachment A provides an overview of how EMS fits with other initiatives and within a catchment context.

This Implementation Plan represents collaboration between the Australian Government and State agencies and the industry/community EMS Steering Committee. As an Implementation Plan, it includes key areas where partnerships need to be established.

In accordance with the basic philosophy in the EMS process, a brief risk assessment was undertaken in relation to the major assumptions used to underpin the Framework and EMS Implementation Plan and is outlined within the Plan.

The Plan also commits governments to regularly reviewing and reporting on progress on the Plan. An annual report on progress in implementing this Plan will be prepared and submitted to the NRM Ministerial Council. ª¥is annual report will also consider potential improvements in the Plan in accordance with the continual improvement cycle embodied in the EMS Process. Public reports on progress will be developed in the second year and there will also be a review of the National Framework and EMS Implementation Plan in five years time.

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