The wind-lashed Coorong Lagoon at the mouth of the River Murray in South Australia has been a bountiful food provider for eons; as rich in both Indigenous and European fishing history as it once was in mullet, Golden Perch, bream, flounder and man-size Mulloway.

Its ‘modern’ history stretches back more than 150 years, a heritage shaped by boats built of wood and men made of steel, as third-generation Coorong fisher Garry Hera-Singh likes to quip.

The fishery’s greatest challenge, outside the natural cycle of drought and low river flows into the estuarine habitat, was the construction in the 1930s of massive concrete barrages to stop the sea flooding into the Murray so that the abutting Lake Alexandrina could be turned into a fresh water supply.

The impact on the fishery, denied the natural estuarine migrations, was immediate and severe. Almost 90 per cent of the estuarine production capacity was lost. But the fishery didn’t die. Fishers, like Garry Hera-Singh’s grandfathers, persevered, astutely managing this much smaller, but still valuable seafood resource. Two generations later the same determination has steeled today’s fishers to similarly control their destiny; to enlist science to demonstrate their sustainability and to defend their industry against politics and misinformation.

Under the auspices of the Southern Fishermen’s Association (SFA), the 32 families comprising the Lakes and Coorong Fishery became in June 2008 only the third Australian fishery to be certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)*. They were the first community-based fishery to be certified in Australia and the first multi-species, multi-method fishery in the world to receive the coveted MSC certificate.

It took 10 years to achieve. “We were data-poor and lacked the financial resources to pay for the detailed research that was required to underpin certification. As we had no paid staff, we had to do it all ourselves,” explains Garry Hera-Singh.

In addition, implementing 30 rigorous sustainability and management conditions had to be tackled in whatever time remained after the 60 to 80 hours a week spent earning a livelihood on the water.

The outcome, he hopes, is that the fishery has cemented its place as a fishery with a future. To keep the MSC certificate, every fishing activity every day is recorded by each fisher and the whole fishery is audited annually by an international team of scientists based in California. It establishes the sort of science-backed credibility that today sees leading restaurateurs such as Neil Perry, Simon Bryant, Tom Kime and Kylie Kwong keenly sourcing supplies from the fishery and paying a premium.

Neil Perry, owner of the acclaimed Rockpool restaurants in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, says fishers who look after their catch and their environment and put in the extra effort for quality should be supported and rewarded. His restaurants also similarly promote and buy from the Spencer Gulf Prawn Fishery, which gained MSC certification last November.
He believes the MSC ‘sustainability badge’ will increasingly influence consumer choice. “It’s a fledgling badge in Australia, but in the UK and Europe it has become the standard and many large stores, like Sainsbury’s, will only stock MSC seafood.”

Qualifying for their MSC rating also equipped the Coorong fishers to cope with the past decade of drought when Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert all but dried up. Without waiting to be asked, they used their knowledge and skills to work in turbid shallows and mud to remove more than 110 tonnes of carp about to be left high and dry on the river side of the barrage. It averted a stench that would have hit local tourism and been a potential disease threat to the region’s famed birdlife.

The fishers (after countless trips to Adelaide and Canberra during the past three decades) were also finally successful in securing the construction of ‘fish ways’ in the barrages. These allowed the return of some migration, once more normal flows returned to the River Murray after almost a decade of drought. These and other efforts were recognised last October when the SFA won the National Seafood for the Future Environment Award sponsored by Sydney Fish Market.

The award capped off a long but ultimately successful struggle that Garry Hera-Singh, the current SFA president, hopes will give other small inland and coastal fisheries the confidence to take control of their futures.

“The most important lesson we learned is ‘Don’t wait for change to be imposed on you; initiate it yourself’,” he says.

He believes the SFA’s experience shows that fishers can take the lead to ensure that research is industry-driven and that the fishery, as well as its marine environment, is the beneficiary.

In the case of the SFA the turn-around in Coorong fishers’ renewed sense of security began with the fear that they might not have a future. The closure of numerous inland and coastal fisheries around Australia had them seeking survival strategies for their families and businesses.

The region’s ecosystem had been degraded by many factors, from agricultural and urban pollution to the impacts of over-extraction of water from the Murray–Darling Basin and recent drought. But the fishers sensed the wider community was looking for a scapegoat for the degradation, rather than real answers.

It was not well understood that the fishery, although commercial, had remained as a traditional, manual operation; from the small hand nets used to harvest pipis on the beaches to the species-specific estuarine nets. Nothing had been mechanised or automated. The skills that Garry Hera-Singh, for example, learned from his grandfathers were the ones still practised. Hemp and cotton nets might have given way to monofilament, and oars to outboards, but each day’s catch is dictated by experience, an instinct for where to set nets, and the number of hours it is humanly possible to work.

The SFA’s first move was to develop, with the help initially of local marine biologist Bryan Pierce, an environmental management plan (EMP). Under this, all SFA members committed themselves to a set of obligations that included:

• conforming to all legislative requirements and codes;
• an annual review aimed at continual improvement of environmental performance;
• continual improvement of fishing methods that minimise unnecessary waste of the resource and minimise fish stress;
• zero pollution;
• liaising with other interested parties on environmental issues; and
• addressing the degradation of habitat issues.

Garry Hera-Singh says this helped bring people up-to-speed on what was required of a modern fishery. “And having committed ourselves to economic, ecological and social best practice, it soon became apparent that the real goal should be MSC accreditation – the highest international standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries.

“One of the biggest threats to small community-based fisheries is arbitrary closure. We knew we needed independent quantitative evidence that the fishery is well managed and sustainable. This also meant debunking false information about our practices, such as the ‘walls of death’ perceptions of gill nets.”

The process began with the MSC undertaking a pre-assessment of the fishery to identify the areas that had to be addressed or improved. Fortuitously, the fishery had already come to the attention of WWF (formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund) Australia because of its EMP. WWF funded the $13,000 pre-assessment that identified the Lakes and Coorong Fishery as inherently sustainable. To pursue full assessment required $210,000, which was sourced from WWF, the Packard Foundation US and Environment Australia. A further estimated $100,000 in-kind from industry was needed to complete assessment under the full MSC methodology version 5.

One of the conditions the fishery had to meet related to bycatch. A detailed study into bycatch levels and impacts was funded by the FRDC and this was completed in 2010.

In the three years since gaining MSC certification the fishers are more confident about representing their industry on a range of relevant bodies, such as the Lakes and Coorong Fishery Management Committee, two Murray–Darling Basin committees, the Coorong (National Park) Consultative Committee and others.

Their efforts have also attracted international interest as small community fisheries around the world face similar environmental and political pressures.

In looking to the future, the SFA is continuing to make sure it has “a voice at the table” whenever issues or policies that might affect its future are being discussed. The SFA now also employs a part-time executive officer, Neil MacDonald, a well-known and experienced fisheries manager in SA.

SFA secretary/treasurer Tracy Hill is also president of the Women’s Industry Network SA, which is active nationally in industry and seafood promotion. Tracy Hill feels the MSC has given the fishers both political and social credibility and helped to improve relationships with management authorities.

“For too long the focus was on managing the fishers rather than the resource and that caused a lot of distrust. That is now changing, with everyone’s attention more focused on the same goal: sustainable, healthy fisheries,” she says. “In fact, to be frank, had we not put in place the changes required to achieve MSC certification I doubt we’d still be here as a fishery.”

Tracy Hill says the MSC certification has lifted everyone’s confidence in the future.

By Brad Collis

After receiving 212 millimetres of rain in just one week from late February to early March, Katamatite grain grower Phillip Barnes says he and his family were fortunate to suffer only minor flood damage. The floods across northern Victoria and southern NSW were among the worst on record, with many farms suffering severe damage. But for the Barnes family the unheralded weather produced some positive lessons, particularly for the soybeans they are keen to re-establish in the region.

Phillip, with his brother Russell and father Ron, operates 1214 hectares over several blocks between Katamatite and Muckatah in northern Victoria, growing soybeans, barley, oaten hay, lucerne hay, canola, wheat and prime lambs. Hardest hit by the floods was a stand of lucerne on the family’s northern property near Muckatah, but their 92ha of Djakal soybeans were unaffected by the floodwater.

The soybeans at the low-lying end of irrigation bays were under 10 centimetres of water for several days before the family was able to pump out the bays. To their relief and surprise, the crop had not blackened.

Another upside of the deluge was that it arrived on 28 February before the soybean crop had matured, eliminating the need for the final two irrigations.

The Barnes family usually counts on using seven to eight megalitres of water per hectare to grow soybeans, but the rain that week lowered the irrigation spend to about 6ML/ha.

When the soil under the soybeans dried enough to be trafficable, Philip’s brother Russell desiccated the crop using an 18-metre Hardi tow-behind boomspray, which evened maturity in preparation for harvest.

At an agronomy field day at the Barnes’s Katamatite property earlier in the year, industry experts estimated the soybeans would yield about 4 tonnes/ha. Despite the flooding, Phillip says the crop’s yield prospects looked good: “There’s a lot of pods,” he says.

The soybeans are stored on-farm until tests determine the protein content. Once this is known a marketing decision will be made.

Phillip hopes the quality will be high enough for the human foods market, which usually pays $50 to $100 above the crushing price.

A critical factor in growing high-yielding soybeans is timely sowing. The family likes to pre-water its irrigation bays in early November and sow the crop around the middle of November.

By Nicole Baxter

Following the recent Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness the Australian Government has outlined its response. The report, An Effective Aid Program for Australia: Making a real difference – Delivering real results, outlines the directions for Australian aid.

The fundamental purpose of the program is to help people overcome poverty. This also serves Australia’s national interests by promoting stability and prosperity both in our region and beyond. Effort is focused on areas where Australia can make a difference and where the country’s resources can be deployed most effectively and efficiently.

Speaking at the launch of the Government’s response, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, emphasised the three core principles of Australian aid:

• that poverty eradication is our core objective;
• that as well as being the right thing to do, it is in our national security interests; and
• we focus on those areas where we can make a real difference.

“In doing so, we align ourselves with the Millennium Development Goals,” Minister Rudd said.

“One point four billion members of the human family (one-fifth of our number) today suffer the degradation of poverty. And two-thirds of these are within our region. We believe it is right to do what we can to help our fellow human beings out of poverty—because as Australians it is not in our nature to be indifferent to the sufferings of others,” he said.

ACIAR plays a modest, strategic role in promoting stability and prosperity, both in our region and beyond, through improving food security.

ACIAR delivers Australian expertise in agricultural research, which significantly contributes to sustainable economic development in agriculture—the largest sector in most developing country economies.

The aid program has five strategic goals to which ACIAR contributes. Its key contribution is to the goal of sustainable economic development and specifically the first development objective within this goal: improving food security by investing in agricultural productivity, infrastructure protection and the opening of markets.

Transferring new knowledge, technologies and approaches to the agricultural sectors of developing countries has significant potential to achieve productivity gains and surpluses, which in turn lift incomes and reduce poverty. These gains also create opportunities in other sectors by freeing-up labour and generating growth in communities.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development reports that gross domestic product (GDP) growth generated by agriculture can be up to four times more effective in reducing poverty than growth generated by other sectors.

ACIAR’s focus is on food security, delivered through research that helps smallholder farmers overcome barriers to adoption.

In a speech for Anti-Poverty Week, Minister Rudd referred to the ACIAR Seeds of Life project in East Timor. By boosting crop yields with no extra inputs, the project was an example of the sustainable economic development to which the aid program aspires.

“That is the difference between, frankly, subsistence agriculture to a level of agriculture which becomes genuinely self-sustaining, and even the possibility of selling at market,” Minister Rudd said.

This change is demonstrated in the story of Maria Elena Castro Soares who, with her husband, struggled to feed their 10 children prior to becoming involved in Seeds of Life. In 2005 she received five kilograms of rice from a Seeds of Life project officer. Today, she and her family have earned enough from the surpluses gained from the improved rice variety to pay for schooling for their children and for farm labour. They have also been able to start a small kiosk business with the remaining funds.

This is one example of how ACIAR, through delivering improved food security, is helping transform the lives of smallholders. Many other smallholders have similar stories to tell from their involvement with ACIAR projects.

Government response to the aid review

The Australian Government is committed to lifting its aid funding to 0.5 per cent of gross national income (GNI) by 2015–16.

In November 2010, Minister Rudd announced an Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness so that Australians would know that the increased funding was improving the lives of the poor. The review was a forward-looking exercise, with the Government’s response released in July 2011.

The review found that Australia has a good aid program and is an effective performer by global donor standards. The Government’s response agreed, or agreed in principle, to 38 of the 39 recommendations. Cabinet has noted one further recommendation on the name of the portfolio, which will be considered at a later date.

Purpose of Australian aid

The fundamental purpose of Australian aid is to help people in developing countries overcome poverty. This also serves Australia’s national interests by promoting stability and prosperity in our region and beyond. Effort is focused on areas where Australia can make a difference and where the country’s resources can be deployed most effectively and efficiently.

Focus of Australian aid

Consistent with the Millennium Development Goals, Australia’s aid program is guided by five core strategic goals, reinforced by 10 individual development objectives.

1. Saving lives
• Improving public health.
• Improving the lives of women and children through greater access to quality services.
2. Promoting opportunities for all
• Enabling more children, particularly girls, to attend school.
• Empowering women.
• Enhancing the lives of people with disabilities.
3. Sustainable economic development
• Improving food security.
• Improving incomes, employment and enterprise opportunities for poor people.
• Reducing negative impacts of climate change and environmental factors on poor people.
4. Effective governance
• Improving governance to deliver services, improve security and enhance justice and human rights for poor people.
5. Humanitarian and disaster response
• Enhancing disaster preparedness and delivering faster and more effective responses to humanitarian crises.

Geographically, as recommended in the Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness, the Asia–Pacific region—including our nearest neighbours Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor—remains the primary focus of Australia’s efforts. This is where Australia has strong ties and experience, and where the international community expects us to play a lead role. It is also where Australia’s economic and security interests are most closely engaged.

At the same time, Australia will increase aid to South Asia and Africa. As a growing middle power, we cannot claim to be tackling global poverty without increasing our investment in the world’s two most impoverished regions.

The aid program will continue to play its part in international efforts to bring development to Afghanistan and Pakistan. We will also provide targeted support elsewhere.

By Alexandra Bagnara