Drinks Trade Online spoke with Landcare project manager, James Walsh, about the increasingly alarming impacts of climate change on our environment and Banrock Station’s joint initiative to plant 200,000 native trees and shrubs in 2021 and 2022.
Established in 1989, the not-for-profit organisation Landcare Australia was launched by the Hawke Government to bring farmers and conservationists together to resolve environmental issues.
Never in the history of our time has this been more important than it is today.
Banrock Station, the wine brand from Accolade Wines, has hung its hat on being an eco-friendly and proactive wine brand and has actively engaged with Landcare Australia for several decades.
Banrock also demonstrates its commitment to environmental conservation through the Banrock Station Environmental Trust, that sees a portion of profits reinvested into conservation projects globally.
Recently Banrock Station and Landcare Australia collaborated in the Australian Government’s 20 Million Trees Program that resulted in 80,500 new trees planted and the restoration of 161 hectares on Banrock Station including restoring River Red Gum and Black Box woodlands down on the Murray River.
Specifically designed to protect threatened species and link landscapes, these projects have localised benefits for the environment, local communities and native flora and fauna. For them to be as beneficial as possible, however, James Walsh says we need to address the levels of land clearing in Australia as well because time is not on our side.
“We are racing against drawing down carbon in the atmosphere. We not only have to decarbonise our economy but have to draw down what's already been emitted, so initiatives like this are key.
"On top of that we have biodiversity collapse, insect numbers and wild animal populations plummeting, so there is a whole range of co-benefits that come along with projects like these that address a whole range of environmental issues we are facing at the moment," says Walsh.
The latest joint initiative between Banrock and Landcare is the restoration of 200 hectares and the planting of 200,000 native trees and shrubs over 2021 and 2020, commencing in January next year.
“It’s a really important contribution from Banrock to the environment and the local community. We have a window to restore our environment and it's important we utilise this window to do as much restoration work as we possibly can,” says Walsh.
Indeed, the whole wine industry could take a leaf from Banrock’s book.
The wine industry relies heavily on ecosystems to function. Vineyards rely on pollination and rainfall and healthy river systems.
Walsh says it is definitely in the interest of the wine industry to plant pollination friendly and native species around vines and to consider partnering with organisations such as Landcare to ensure long-term business sustainability.
“If the pollinators are not there then it is going to be a very tricky business to maintain viticulture,” explains Walsh.
"It would be great to see more businesses step up and face the challenges we are facing head-on at the moment as a society and as a collective humanity.
“The economic costs of climate change are going to dwarf the economic costs of COVID. We need to refocus on our environment and restoring the natural areas that have been degraded or removed over the last couple of hundred years,” Walsh concluded.
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