Australia's beef industry achieved a major milestone this week with the release of the 2019 Australian Beef Sustainability Framework Update. The BSF is demonstrating significant progress being made by the industry across a range of indicators and new levels of transparency . We would urge you to have a read https://www.sustainableaustralianbeef.com.au/

It was also a major milestone for Cibo Labs with the release of the first report on the Balance of Tree and Grass Cover Indicators. Cibo Labs was engaged to put an entirely new analytic framework in place in partnership with the industry and several government and research agencies. We have established a new national rural properties database comprising some 550,000 individual rural properties >10ha in partnership with PSMA, and analysed annual changes in forest cover and seasonal changes in ground cover for every property since 1988. These data have been aggregated into national and regional statistics for Australia's 56 NRM Regions and are available here: https://www.sustainableaustralianbeef.com.au/vegetation-trends%20 

This new approach will:

• allow the Framework to annually track and measure the impact the beef industry is having on vegetation across the nation

• Support the industry to drive improvement in environmental practices and celebrate successes of good farm management

• Provide a tool for producers to use for improving on-farm productivity and land management

• Create a science-based measure of vegetation, separating fact from fiction in ongoing debates and for policymakers.

We are very proud of the what we have achieved on behalf of the beef industry, and are looking forward to the next stages of development. We believe this work sets a new international benchmark for industry reporting and continuous improvement from paddock to plate.

We would also like to gratefully acknowledge the support and contributions of the: BSF Sustainability Steering Group and Project Team; Balance of Tree and Grass Cover Expert Working Group members; the Commonwealth Department of Environment; Public Sector Mapping Agency (PSMA); Joint Remote Sensing Research Program and the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN).