Resilience under change

The issue and impact

A resilient soil functions well, even when put under pressure by changes in use or climate. Intensification pushes our soils hard and reduces their resilience, resulting in potential enterprise-level failures. Some current soil and water management practices are not sustainable and increased climate variability and extreme weather events exacerbate this.

Just 31% of our land can sustain pastoral farming without erosion control.

• During the Manawatu floods in February 2004, more than 20,000 ha of productive land was degraded, resulting in direct damage worth $112 million. Intangible and indirect costs will double this figure.
• Flood-plain protection is widely provided by willows planted along riverbanks. The integrity of these plantings is at risk from sawfly infestation, threatening adjacent productive enterprises.
• Degraded soils reduce the potential for production and restrict opportunities for exploiting new land production systems in the future.

Research needs

• Identify future risks following intensification and climate change
• Develop an integrated risk framework for the design of management practices for erosion mitigation
• Develop adaptive management strategies to build resilient soils for sustaining new production systems.