Delbessie Agreement
The Delbessie Agreement (also known as the State Rural Leasehold Land Strategy) is a framework of legislation, policies and guidelines supporting the environmentally sustainable, productive use of rural leasehold land for agribusiness.
Signed in December 2007 by the Queensland Government, AgForce Queensland and the Australian Rainforest Conservation Society at Delbessie, a property near Hughenden, the agreement is the product of more than a decade of review and conservation.
In collaboration with key stakeholders, the department has developed a suite of practical measures to achieve sustainable land management, including guidelines for assessing rural leasehold land condition that build on the principles of the Land Act 1994, including the statutory duty of care and provisions relating to land degradation.
- Delbessie Agreement (PDF, 465K)*
- Delbessie Agreement—Guidelines for determining lease land condition (PDF, 428K)*
- Land managment self assessment and monitoring kit - Rural Leasehold Land (PDF, 9.5M)*
What is ‘rural leasehold land’
Rural leasehold land is State land that is leased for agriculture or grazing. It does not include lease land that is within a reserve, State forest, timber reserve, national park, conservation park, resources reserve or forest reserve.
The Delbessie Agreement clarifies the duty of care obligations of all holders of rural leasehold land; however, its primary focus is on the sustainable management of rural leases with terms of 20 years or more and covering an area of 100 hectares or more.
What the Agreement will achieve
The Delbessie Agreement assists land managers to balance using the land profitably with maintaining healthy land condition and adapting farming practices to address challenges such as climate change.
Using a mixture of incentives and legal remedies, the framework introduces benefits to stakeholders by:
- providing security of tenure through longer lease terms
- clarifying duty of care where this has previously not been defined
- enabling lease land condition to be assessed using scientifically based guidlines
- introducing land management agreements to guide ongoing land management
- promoting voluntary conservation agreements and Indigenous access to State rural leasehold land for traditional purposes
- clarifying what will happen if land is identified as having significant environmental values that should be conserved within the protected area estate (e.g. future national parks).
* Requires Adobe Reader
Last updated 21 December 2011