National vs Local Indicators
Two factors are fundamental to decision making, and therefore to behaviour change. One is decision support information (indicators) and the other is the processes by which indicator information is used.
The increasing internationalisation of sustainability issues and concerns is a double-edged sword. On the one hand it provides market opportunity (through consumer preferences) but on the other hand it requires the need to demonstrate an integrity behind the claims made. Indicators are therefore needed for a variety of purposes including international standing and Treaty obligations, validation of consumer preferences, as well as guiding local authorities and individual land holders on the status of their practice, and therefore how to improve them.
It is our contention that farmers and growers now appreciate the concept of sustainable agriculture, understand its importance, and now seek guidance on:
- they can do that is different (improved); and
- to know when they have got it right.
The current market conditions accentuate the point that the key issues facing the agricultural science community today are not just what sustainable technologies in practice are, but also how to achieve their uptake and measure progress (Strategic Consultative Group on Sustainable Land Management Research, 1995). The questions therefore become:
- to effectively transfer information (technology) to farmers?; and
- indicators, and what levels of performance (i.e., "standards" in the jargon) are useful and appropriate?
Furthermore, it is important that indicators are built up from useful, practical "on farm" and "on orchard" information. The philosophy must be to consistently empower and facilitate individual and community driven change (Bosch, Allen and Gibson, 1996). National indicators should therefore, where possible, be built up from local indicators, or at very least, be sympathetic to local circumstances. We are concerned to see indicator work in New Zealand become better integrated.
As it stands, there are currently a number of relatively independent initiatives on indicators. The Joint Working Party of the Committee for Agriculture and the Environmental Policy Committee of OECD is developing a set of Agri-environmental Indicators for international comparison and use in policy making. A National Environmental Indicators Programme is being developed by the Ministry for the Environment. (The Ministry of Agriculture, too, is developing indicators for sustainable agriculture.) Regional monitoring programmes designed to measure environmental performance at a regional level are being developed by regional councils. A range of community initiatives are being supported by, amongst other sources, the Sustainable Management Fund, to develop local and catchment level environmental indicators. And finally, many farmers, focus farms and Landcare groups, etc., are also developing and applying useful indicators. Co-ordinating top down and bottom up requirements is a challenge to all concerned.
Researchers clearly have an important role in developing, packaging and communicating suitable practical indicators, supported by programmes that facilitate their practical use.
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