A group of New Zealand farmers now has several properties in the
final stages of environmental certification under a group scheme, to ISO
14001 standards. The North Otago Sustainable Land Management
(NOSLaM) group's major project is the development of the ENVIRO-AG
Farm Environmental Certification scheme, modeled on ISO 14001
environmental certification. The ENVIRO-AG process helps farmers
objectively assess the environmental impact of their farm practices,
develop suitable management practices and monitoring methods, then
prove their compliance. The farmer controls this process and tailors the
plan to suit his or her own needs. Over 80 properties throughout the
region now operate ENVIRO-AG plans, which is seen locally as a major
step toward achieving the goal of gaining recognition in the market
place, both nationally and internationally, as a community operating
sustainable farming systems.
Since NOSLaM began in 1994, the group has encouraged the uptake of
environmentally preferable farming methods through newsletters, field
days, seminars and on-farm demonstrations. There is also evidence of
the increased use of improved farming methods. While NOSLaM cannot
claim full credit for this, survey results show that North Otago farmers
have increased the use of less damaging crop establishment and
pasture renewal methods, improved effluent disposal and other farm
practices. Independent assessment has investigated the success of a
non-regulatory approach in improving farmer practices, and the group's
methods appear to be working well.
NOSLaM's new web site may be viewed at http://noslam.co.nz/
The web site has further information about the group and the
ENVIRO-AG system. There are various downloads available in PDF
format of farm plans, as well as the ENVIRO-AG handbook. The group is
keen to establish links with other related web sites and others
interested in using the ENVIRO-AG system. and would welcome
feedback on their approach.
For further information contact Ian Brown, Manager Land Resources,
Otago Regional Council (e-mail: Ian.Brown@orc.govt.nz)
This posting made by:
=====================================================
Will Allen
Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research NZ Ltd.
PO Box 282, Alexandra, New Zealand
Tel: +64 3 4489932 Fax: +64 3 4488939
http://www.landcare.cri.nz/science/social/
E-mail: allenw@landcare.cri.nz
WEBSITE: NRM_changelinks: Improving Community Participation in
Environment & Development
URL: http://nrm.massey.ac.nz/changelinks/
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