UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Government

Name of Ministry/Agency:	Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

Country:	Australia

Name of Focal Point:	National Land & Water Resources Audit

Initiative Title:	Signposts for Australian Agriculture

Internet links:	http://nlwra.gov.au/Natural_Resource_Topics/Signposts_for_Australian_Agriculture/ http://www.signposts4ag.com/

Scope:	National: - Australia

Status:	Ongoing

Timeframe:	Start: July 2004 End: June 2008

Stakeholders/Partners:	Signposts for Australian Agriculture is a collaborative project involving the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, its Bureau of Rural Sciences (BRS) and the Rural Research and Development Corporations (RDCs). The project is managed by the National Land & Water Resources Audit (the Audit) and draws upon advice and data from RDCs, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE), and state and territory agencies and industry bodies.

Relevent issues:	- Food security and sustainable agriculture - Enhancing agricultural productivity through adequate and sustainable inputs

Objectives/Challenges:

The Signposts for Australian Agriculture project looks at the role of agriculture in natural resource management, economic growth and community life. Signposts aims to develop a framework for consistent reporting on the contributions of Australia’s agricultural industries to ecologically sustainable development.

The primary benefits of Signposts stem from its collaborative approach involving a broad range of stakeholders and include:
- a consistent reporting framework across industries with flexibility to incorporate industry-specific features;
- a source of easily accessible, credible information from documented data sources;
- the ability to grow and evolve over time to meet changing government and industry priorities; and
- explicit linkages between industry reporting and regionally-based natural resource management reporting.

Lessons Learned:

One of the key challenges in designing and implementing Signposts has been the availability and comparability of data. In some instances key components of data were unavailable and in others time-frames and/or scales were incompatible.

The stakeholders for the different industries largely varied in their level of contribution, support and engagement. While some were very supportive of the approach and the potential outputs, others were less engaged in the project.

Policy Options:

Signposts provides a basis for evidence-based decisions regarding agricultural industries, including those related to climate change. It integrates both productivity and natural resource management issues and is designed to link directly with natural resource management monitoring, evaluation, reporting and improvement (MERI).

Outputs from Signposts are used for:
- reporting by industry using credible data that covers economic, social and environmental outcomes;
- identifying and targeting policy priorities;
- planning – for example, the Grains Research and Development Corporation used Signposts to develop its key performance indicators; and
- communication and coordination (filling data and research gaps; linking industry and regionally-based reporting etc).

Summary:

The Signposts for Australian Agriculture project aims to inform policy development by assessing and reporting on the environmental, economic and social contributions of Australian agricultural industries.

Signposts is designed to address the question - How does an agricultural industry contribute to ecologically sustainable development? The information will be used to:
- build industry credibility in environmental management
- address community concerns about industry practices
- identify priority issues and areas for action.

Signposts provides Australian agricultural industries with tools to assess, illustrate and demonstrate how their activities contribute to ecologically sustainable development in Australia. The project is developing the following products:
- a reporting framework, including associated outcome statements and indicators on the environmental, economic and social contributions of Australian agricultural industries;
- a website consisting of electronic profiles for the grains, meat, dairy, cotton, wine and horticulture industries based on the reporting framework; and
- reports summarising the contributions of individual industries.

The next stage in Signposts involves the ongoing development of the reporting framework and its population with data for the grains, beef, dairy, horticulture, wine and cotton industries.

Web-based profiles of the grains, beef, horticulture, dairy, cotton and wine industries are scheduled for public release in 2008. They assess industry performance including economic, social and environmental outcomes and what is being done to achieve them. An early demonstration version of the grains industry profile is publicly available at www.signposts4ag.com.