Building Global Sustainability through local self-reliance

Allan Dale was one of the editors of a booked titled “Building Global Sustainability Through Local Self-Reliance: Lessons From Landcare”. The book was published with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and Global Landcare.

The book launched at the 2022 National Landcare Conference, in Sydney explores the grassroots revolution in environmental management and agricultural extension through Landcare by neighborhood groups. It also explores how this concept can be used to tackle global problems such as climate change and post-disaster recovery.

In the foreword, Andrew Campbell ACIAR Chief Executive Officer said; “We face urgent imperatives to transform food and farming systems to feed growing human populations better, within environmental limits, while managing climatic extremes, military conflict and disease risks. Meeting these imperatives requires fantastic science and innovation. Equally, it requires communities at a local level to develop and implement their own responses to their own deeply contextual challenges.” 

Andrew also identified the important role that groups such as Landcare play in the ecosystem and the sense of ownerships that Land Care can provide grassroot organisations.

“The empowerment of neighbourhood groups to take ownership of environmental problems and solutions both catalysed and reflected a grassroots revolution in environmental management and agricultural extension in Australia. By the end of the 1990s, farming families and other rural and coastal landholders saw themselves as active agents in the stewardship of their district, environment and community.”

Allan has spent the better part of five years collaborating and editing with thirty-one chapter leads and co-authors to bring this book together, in which researchers and practitioners from eleven countries share their expertise and experience of Landcare around the world.

To obtain a copy or view sections please visit https://www.aciar.gov.au/publication/lessons-global-landcare