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