ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND FARM MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FROM A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE AND LINKS TO THE BETTER SUGARCANE INITIATIVE

THIS PAPER describes the Better Sugarcane Initiative (BSI), outlines its history, and explores its impact on the Australian and international sugar industries. BSI, in essence, is an initiative that aims to define and implement best management practices (BMP) that incorporate environmental management systems (EMS) and Farm Management Systems (FMS) for individual sugar producing regions to improve economic, social and environmental outcomes for participants and their communities. On 23–24 June 2005, the inaugural meeting of the Better Sugarcane Initiative convened in London. The meeting was jointly hosted by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Tate and Lyle. This international conference confirmed that sugar producers, processors, traders and large-scale purchasers are committed to the common goal of producing and processing sugarcane in a sustainable manner. This goal will be met by engaging stakeholders in constructive dialogue with the specific objectives as follows: to define better sugarcane producing practices agriculturally, environmentally, socially, and economically; to develop performance-based and verifiable standards, and to foster their implementation for measurable reduction in key impacts. To achieve this goal, the participants in the BSI agreed to: maintain open, honest, and respectful communication, develop a protocol for external communications related to the BSI including the use of sensitive data, respect differences in experience and opinion, recognising that impacts will differ from farm to farm and region to region and that the ability to reduce the impacts will vary as well; and establish a steering committee that reflects the interests of the stakeholders interested in better sugarcane production. Following the London conference, it is vitally important to provide an update on how the BSI may impact the Australian and international sugarcane industries, and particularly how better cane farming practices can be implemented to reduce impacts on the environment. This paper aims to provide that update.