To Which We Belong is a documentary that highlights farmers and ranchers leaving behind conventional practices that are no longer profitable or sustainable. With quiet courage, they are improving the health of our soil and sea to save their livelihoods — and our planet.
Years of industrialized agriculture have been a major contributor to climate change. To Which We Belong follows a new generation of farmers and ranchers who seek to rebuild their businesses and their planet by embracing the interconnectedness of living things.
On land long depleted by monocultured crops, Trey Hill fills the fields with colorful tangles of plant life, revivifying the soil and bringing new richness to the harvest. In Chihuahua, Mexico ranchers like Alejandro Carrillo practice revolutionary techniques in cattle herding, carving out space for wildlife to thrive again. And off the coast of Connecticut, Bren Smith re-seeds the ocean with kelp, mussels, oysters, and scallops, restoring ecosystems ravaged by commercial fishing.
Despite their difference in culture and location, these farmers and ranchers are rooted in the same belief: that to work with nature, not against it, is the answer. Science is showing that if we draw down enough carbon from the sky back into the soil through regenerative agricultural practices, we can actually reverse climate change bringing carbon dioxide down to pre-industrial revolution levels.
So, now it’s our turn: to bring awareness and support to the ranchers and farmers doing the work to renew the earth through these simple, yet profound practices. To Which We Belong tells the stories of nine farms and ranches going against the grain to bravely leave behind practices that are no longer profitable or sustainable. These unsung heroes just might save their livelihoods – and our world itself.
And in this time of turmoil, it might be the best news you receive all year.
‘There is no vaccine for a sick planet. The battle for the climate and against the deregulation of the climate is linked inextricably to preserving and restoring biodiversity’ ‘ President of France, Emmanuel Macron, IUCN Congress opening ceremony Marseille, 3-11 September 2021.
Protecting and restoring nature as part of a post-COVID pandemic roadmap was the urgent need called out by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called out at its 2021 congress. With nearly 6,000 registered participants on site and more than 3,500 online participants, leaders from government, civil society, indigenous, faith and spiritual communities, the private sector, and academia, gathered to collectively decide on actions to address the world’s most pressing conservation and sustainable development challenges.
The congress concluded with some important announcements including:
Agreeing to expand universal access to green spaces and to enhance urban biodiversity in 100 cities, representing around 100 million citizens by 2025
Committing to support the ‘Great Blue Wall Initiative’, the first regionally connected network to develop a regenerative blue economy to the benefit of 70 million people, while conserving and restoring marine biodiversity
France committing to achieve 30% of protected areas nationally by 2022, and 5% of its Mediterranean maritime area under strong protection by 2027.
The congress ended with a High-Level Dialogue on nature-based recovery to urge governments to ‘build back better’ and ensure ‘greater economic and environmental resilience for all’ by implementing a ‘nature-based recovery’ from the pandemic. This includes investing at least 10% of global recovery funds in nature, and adopting a series of resolutions and commitments to urgently address the interlinked climate and biodiversity crises.
SO WHAT? At last business and governments are waking up to a biodiversity crisis that is at least as large as climate change. As we at www.theBEATS.org know ‘If you don’t have biodiversity, you don’t have a planet’. The wider community is demanding an urgent response and the World Economic Forum places biodiversity in the world’s top four risks (for both impact and likelihood) over the next 10 years.
NB: theBEATS.org @Guy Williams is involved with the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management, and the Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group. He took part in a number of the recent sessions relating to these roles and will also be joining the Convention on Biodiversity Diversity Conference of Parties (CBD COP) scheduled in Kunming in Yunnan Province in China. For more information on other IUCN events see here https://www.iucn.org/news/events.
If you find injured or sick wildlife, be sure to call your local wildlife rescue organisation. Do not handle them before you call, as experts can tell you if it is safe for you to touch them and if it is how you can help them.
To search online for a wildlife rescue group near you, visit the Australian Fauna Care Network at?www.fauna.org.au or call the Wildlife Rescue Australia 24-hour call centre?on 1300 596 457.
State and territory contact details for injured wildlife are:
The IFAW Wildlife Rescue App is great for an easy way to find a wildlife rescuer in NSW (available on iOS and Android) https://www.ifaw.org/au/resources/wildlife-rescue-app
First published in Science.sciencemag.org March 11 2021
A decade ago, an Australian report outlined changes the country must make to halt the decline and loss of species1, but the reforms were never implemented. In the years since, most threatened species have continued to decline, and at least three have gone extinct2,3.
Since the year 2000, more than 7.7 million hectares of threatened species habitat have been destroyed.
In February 2021, the Australian government released a report that examined Australia’s ongoing failure to tackle the species extinction crisis and offered recommendations5.
Australia’s minister for the environment has committed to work through the full detail of the recommendations6, but there are already worrying signs that they will be ignored. The Federal Government of Australia must protect and preserve nature as required by international agreements7. Without fundamental policy reforms, Australia – a mega diverse country home to about 600,000 species8– risks mass species extinction.
The most urgent action Australia must take is to establish legally binding National Environmental Standards
They must be rigorously enforced and under- pinned by Indigenous engagement and participation. An Environment Assurance Commissioner should be appointed, one that is responsible for overseeing and auditing government decision-making in accordance with the Standards5.
This would improve accountability, transparency, and trust in government. In addition, an independent body should be created to be responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the environmental legislation, a suggestion that has already been dismissed9.
Current levels of government funding for appropriate environmental management and restoration are insufficient to address Australia’s extinction crisis10.
Adequate resources must urgently target threatened species recovery.
Alongside more funding, existing environmental laws need to be reviewed to close loopholes, such as the one in the current law that effectively grants an exemption to all native forest logging5, threatening hundreds of species2,3.
Assessments of the state of Australia’s imperilled species show that the government is running out of time11.
The Australian scientific community has been increasingly vocal about the ineffectiveness of Australian environmental legislation for achieving its objectives4,10,12 and preventing the likelihood of an extinction crisis10, but these calls have been ignored.
It is time for Australia’s government to heed the calls of scientists and implement urgent, wide-ranging, and reformative policies before it is too late.
Michelle Ward1,2,3*, Shayan Barmand 4, James Watson 1,2, Brooke Williams1,2 1 Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia. 2 School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. 3 World Wildlife Fund–Australia, Brisbane,QLD4000,Australia. 4 African Climate and Development Initiative, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa. *Corresponding author. Email: m.ward@uq.edu.au
REFERENCES AND NOTES
A.Hawke,“TheAustralianEnvironmentAct—Reportof the independent review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999” (Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Canberra, 2009).
Commonwealth of Australia, EPBC Act List of Threatened Fauna (2019); www.environment.gov. au/cgibin/sprat/public/public threatened list. pl? wanted=fauna.
Commonwealth of Australia, EPBC Act List of Threatened Flora (2019); www.environment.gov.au/cgi- bin/sprat/public/public threatened list. pl?wanted=flora.
M.Ward et al.,Conserv. Sci. Pract. 1,e117(2019).
G. Samuel, “Independent review of the EPBC Act – Final report” (Canberra, Australia, 2020).
Commonwealth of Australia,“Review supports reform for environmental laws” (2021); https:// minister.awe.gov.au/ley/media-releases/ review-supports-reform-environmental-laws.
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, “Preparations for the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework” (2020).
A.D.Chapman,“Number of living species in Australia and the World” (Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage, the Arts, 2009).
Commonwealth of Australia,“Reform for Australia’s environment laws” (2020); https:// minister.awe.gov.au/ley/media-releases/ reform-australias-environment-laws.
B. Wintle et al., Conserv. Lett. 12, e12682 (2019).
I.D. Cresswell, H.T.Murphy,“Australia state of the environment 2016: Biodiversity (Independent report to the Australian Government Minister for the Environment and Energy)” (Canberra, Australia, 2016).
Australian Academy of Science, “Academy Fellows say it’s time to establish an independent biodiversity agency” (2020); www.science.org.au/ news-and-events/news-and-media-releases/ academy-fellows-time-establish-independent-biodiversity-agency. 10.1126/science.abg9225
In the first of a series of brief clips shared from the Australia and New Zealand Holistic Management news site we share some of veteran regenerative famers, Charlie Massy and Norm Smith short documentary, ‘Changing Paradigms – The Power of Regenerative Agriculture’. And alert you to some great new courses starting around Mullumbimby, Wauchope, Berry and Braidwood NSW, Macedon Ranges VIC, Albany and Gascoyne WA. Check out the Holistic Management Courses webpage.
