It is up to us collectively and individually, Brian Wehlburg said, if we are to make a difference in the manner in which we continue to be custodians of the land on which we live and grow crops and raise livestock.
Mr Wehlburg, director of Inside Outside Management was addressing those gathered for the 'Building Resilience into the Landscape' forum held at Gill Sanbrook's property, Bibbaringa, Bowna.
All the "natural landscape" as we know it is the result of someone's decisions - there is virtually no land left in the world today that is not managed one way or another, some is managed well and some not so well, he said.
"It is this 'management' we really need to focus on," he said.
"We make choices everyday as to how our environment responds with the all various tools which are available to us."
Our natural environment is important for all: it provides our home and sustains our living, and most importantly a diverse, stable environment is crucial for our well-being.
"We get our energy from those environments where the diversity of plant, animal and insect life abound," Mr Wehlburg said.
"There is a lot of talk about bio-diversity loss, and it is not scare-mongering.
"It is real and the stories we are hearing about the decline of bee numbers, the overall decline of insects especially coming out of Europe should be sounding huge alarms for everyone."
Further, Mr Wehlburg was confused by the claim climate change and bio-diversity loss are not related.
"It is exactly the same thing," he was at pains to tell his audience.
"They are both the movement of carbon which is "the foundation of life" from one area to another."
Those practicing regenerative agriculture are involved in the process of lifting soil health, sequestering carbon and providing clean water for the rivers are providing more wildlife habitat and putting more carbon into the soil
- Brian Wehlburg, Inside Outside Management
Understanding soil health vital for our life
Brian Wehlburg, Inside Outside Management said the lack of knowledge is a common excuse easily defending the reluctance to make the necessary changes to restore or at least restrict the loss of diversity and accompanied deterioration in soil health when he was addressing the regenerative agriculture field day at Bibbaringa, Bowna.
"Today we know more about a cubic inch of soil than at any other time in human history, we know more about the atmosphere, we know more about the oceans," he said.
"It almost shows as we have more knowledge about these things, we seem to destroy them faster."
We need to be concerned, Mr Wehlburg acknowledged.
"We need vision of how you want your life to be," he said. "It has to be a holistic vision, it has to be about the land, the soil, the plants, the people and the animals for us to make the right decision."
And, Mr Wehlburg said, you need to you ask yourself ... Are our decisions taking us in the direction we really want to go?
"The answer is important because the human tendency is to focus on the problem or the goal or the objective rather than what is the big picture," he said.
"That is how we have evolved as humans, but we need something beyond the everyday goals and objectives because that is what has gotten us into trouble up to this point."
However Mr Wehlburg had a positive message for those prepared to listen.
"Once you have the vision, you will do whatever you have to make the right decisions," he said.
"Those practicing regenerative agriculture are involved in the process of lifting soil health, sequestering carbon and providing clean water for the rivers are providing more wildlife habitat and putting more carbon into the soil."
