Productive Perennials for Biodiversity (FP27)

The Productive Perennials for Biodiversity project is determining the contribution that production perennials can make to the conservation of biodiversity in farming landscapes.

It is focusing primarily on the resource needs of native animals contrasted with what is provided by perennial farming systems and what is required overall to maintain, to the best of our knowledge, populations of native animals within agricultural landscapes.

The project will focus on a limited number of species as representatives of different guilds (groups of species with similar resource requirements) found in agricultural landscapes. Outcomes from this study will result in management and decision packages that promote farming systems which integrate production and biodiversity outcomes.

For more information about the biodiversity benefits of mallees, download the FFI CRC Fact Sheet.

Objectives:

• Determine the resource needs of specific biodiversity guilds within selected farming landscapes, particularly with respect to anticipated rapid climate change
• Determine what each landscape and its current systems presently provide and what is lacking for the needs of the guilds described
• Explore scenarios for changes and interventions by various stakeholders to determine options for how the missing resources might be provided, focusing particularly on the optimal implementation and management of perennial-based farming systems.

Activities

The project has completed a review of species known to occur in relevant farming landscapes in south western Western Australia and South Australia and has summarised the resource needs of these species.

2010 FFI CRC SA Regional Symposium presentation on the biodiversity benefits of saltbush