There are three inter-dependent components of sustainable land
management which make up the concept of Ecologically Sustainable
Development (ESD):
- economic factors
- social factors
- ecological factors
Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) uses a holistic approach to
environmental and natural resource management that uses a river
catchment as its unit of management. ICM recognises that
land, water, vegetation, people and land uses in a catchment are
interrelated. Using the process of ICM, resource managers
have an opportunity to manage the system as a whole.
Land uses in the Fitzroy Basin
Land in Central Queensland supports a wide diversity of uses, from
conservation to production based industries.
Table 1.
Land uses within the Fitzroy Basin (Agriculture - Agricultural
Census 2000/01 and DPI&F data, GBR - Access Economics, 2005).
| Industry
| Number of Farms
| Annual value of operations (millions)
|
| Cotton
| 82
| $92
|
| Horticulture
| 81
| $39
|
| Grain (~50% mixed)
| 332
| $267
|
| Beef Cattle
| 2756
| $847
|
| Dairy
| 47
| $9
|
| Fishing
| N/A
| $40
|
| Forestry
| N/A
| $4
|
| Mining
| N/A
| $5700
|
| Great Barrier Reef
| N/A
| $6000
|
Agriculture
Agricultural production has the greatest footprint of any land use
in Central Queensland with nearly 90% of the land under
agricultural production.
Grazing is the largest agricultural land use with over 80% under
grazing, followed by cropping which covers 6% and approximately
0.5% of agricultural land is used for irrigation.
Forestry
Approximately 900 000 hectares of land in Central Queensland is
currently under State Forestry. Initial estimates of remnant
vegetation on freehold land containing commercial timber species in
the Fitzroy Basin are about 1.8 million hectares (not including
coastal catchments or the Boyne Calliope catchments).
Mining
Mining and other extractive industries occupy a relatively small
area of about 56 000 hectares in Central Queensland. Like
other land uses it creates both on site and off site natural
resource and environmental impacts.
Conservation
Approximately 6% of the Fitzroy Basin's land area is under
conservation management.
Urban and industrial uses
Between 0.5% and 1% of the regions land is under this use, which
includes intensive animal industries such as piggery's and, ports,
aerodromes, and land supporting utilities such as electricity
generation and transmission, gas storage and treatment.
Indigenous land
Most of the crown land in the region is under Native Title claim.
In addition, Indigenous groups own pastoral properties and
provide local government over the Woorabinda local government area.
