The International Day for Biological Diversity held in May 2008, recognised that sustainable agriculture promotes and is enhanced by biodiversity, but that agriculture has also been a major cause of biodiversity loss. To date, the responses to address these declines in biodiversity have been to set up conservation reserve schemes, and (in Australia) legislation to conserve vegetation and threatened species. However, both local and global biodiversity continues to decline at alarming rates (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Conservation of biodiversity within agricultural landscapes is essential but, on its own, reserving land for conservation does not provide an effective means of doing this. Ultimately, the sustainability of our agricultural systems will be judged not only by their success in sustaining world food production, agricultural livelihoods and enhanced human wellbeing, but also by the extent to which they conserve biodiversity (The Convention on Biodiversity, 2008). In Australia, ‘Caring for our Country’, due to commence in July 2008, has as a major goal to provide, “an environment that is healthy, better protected, well managed, resilient and provides essential ecosystem services in a changing climate” (Caring for Our Country, 2008).

While some synergy between on-farm management of biodiversity and long-term financial viability has generally been assumed, concerns have been raised by both landholders and Catchment Management Authority (CMA) staff regarding the specific nature of this interaction. Documentation of management practices that are most likely to achieve benefits for both farm financial viability and biodiversity conservation is lacking. Responding to these concerns, a Joint CMA Biodiversity and Production Working Group (B&PWG) was formed between Western (WCMA), Namoi (NCMA) and Border Rivers-Gwydir (BR-GCMA) CMAs to identify opportunities for more effective integration of production and biodiversity conservation.

Specifically, the aim of the B&PWG was to review the available scientific evidence relating agricultural management practices to biodiversity outcomes at farm and regional scales. This report represents a synthesis of knowledge which can provide practical recommendations and identify knowledge gaps. Case studies that illustrate the practical application of some of these recommendations are also provided. Within this document we clearly recognise that four approaches are available to achieve biodiversity conservation on private land. These include regulation, voluntary measures, economic incentives and motivation approaches (education and community-based programs). The relative merits and short-comings of each approach have been reviewed by Curran, (2000). The value of education and community-based programs is that they allow individuals to respond to a range of measures, whether voluntary, financial or regulatory. Importantly, this report also provides a basis for the development of training workshops and development packages in the second stage of the project.