Biodiversity Day: drought resilience starts with biodiversity

Today, Friday 22 May, marks the United Nations’ International Day for Biological Diversity. The 2026 theme, “Acting locally for global impact”, neatly captures the Vic Hub’s work across Victorian farming regions: supporting practical, locally led action that strengthens drought resilience from the ground up.

Across Victorian agriculture, biodiversity is part of the living system that helps farms prepare for, respond to and recover from dry conditions.

Healthy soils, native vegetation, pollinators, beneficial insects, shelterbelts, wetlands and waterways all play a role in how well a landscape can handle climate stress. Together, they support water infiltration, nutrient cycling, soil structure, crop productivity, livestock shelter and the ecosystem services that farm businesses rely on every season.

In practical terms, biodiversity can help buffer the impacts of drought and other climate extremes, and much of this resilience starts below the surface.

 

Living soil as drought-resilience infrastructure

 

The Vic Hub’s report, Analysis of the issues and opportunities in soil extension and adoption for Victorian farmers, prepared by Victorian Regional Soil Coordinator Dr Peter Fisher, outlines the importance of soil-management practices that improve both productivity and the sustainability of the natural resource base. The report focuses on how land managers can be better supported to adopt soil practices that deliver agricultural and natural-resource-management benefits.

That matters because soil is not simply a growing medium. It is a living system.

Soil organisms help cycle nutrients, build structure, support water movement and contribute to the overall function of agricultural landscapes. This makes soil health one of the most direct links between biodiversity and farm productivity.

Farmers managing drought risk rely on those below-ground systems. More biologically active soils can support better soil structure, water-holding capacity and plant access to nutrients, helping farming systems become more resilient when conditions tighten.

The soil extension report also makes an important point for drought-resilience work: awareness and engagement do not always lead to practice change. It notes that while farming systems groups often engage well with farmers, engagement alone does not necessarily lead to improved adoption of beneficial soil-management practices. To move from engagement to adoption, extension needs to connect with farmers’ existing knowledge, values, priorities and ideas of what good farming looks like.

That is where local delivery matters. The Vic Hub’s decentralised model works through regional nodes and partners to support activities that are grounded in local conditions, local relationships and local decision-making.

 

Native vegetation, pollinators and working landscapes

 

Biodiversity on farms is also visible above ground.

Native vegetation, shelterbelts and riparian areas can support shade, shelter, water infiltration, reduced erosion and habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators. These landscape features are not separate from farm productivity. They are part of how working landscapes function.

Pollinators are one clear example. Diverse flowering vegetation on and around farms supports insects that contribute directly to crop production, while also providing habitat for beneficial species that support natural pest control.

Native vegetation also plays a role in drought preparedness. Deep-rooted perennial plants, groundcover and restored riparian areas can help stabilise soils, protect waterways and keep more moisture in the landscape. In dry seasons, these benefits can become particularly important.

Across Victoria, many farmers are already taking practical steps that support biodiversity and drought resilience at the same time. These include improving groundcover, protecting remnant vegetation, revegetating with local indigenous species, fencing off waterways, managing stock access to dams, increasing soil organic matter and building more diverse farming systems.

Each action may be local. Collectively, they contribute to a more resilient agricultural landscape.

 

Acting locally for global impact

 

The 2026 Biodiversity Day theme, “Acting locally for global impact”, aligns strongly with the Vic Hub’s work.

The Hub connects farmers, researchers, farming systems groups, industry and government to support practical drought-resilience activities across Victoria. This includes projects, trials, demonstrations, decision-support tools and extension activities that help farmers test, refine and adopt approaches suited to their region.

The Vic Hub’s mandate includes agricultural industries, regional communities and the environment. Biodiversity Day is an opportunity to make that environmental connection more visible, and to show how drought resilience and biodiversity outcomes can support each other.

This is especially important as drought preparedness increasingly involves whole-of-landscape thinking. Productive farms depend on healthy natural systems: living soils, functioning waterways, resilient vegetation, pollinators, beneficial insects and the local knowledge needed to manage them well.

Drought resilience is often described through the language of risk, productivity and preparedness. Biodiversity adds another important layer. It reminds us that resilience is also built through the living systems that keep landscapes functioning.

This Biodiversity Day, the message is simple: supporting biodiversity on farms is not an added extra. It is part of building drought-ready landscapes.

 

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Learn more

 

 

 

Read the Vic Hub report: , Analysis of the issues and opportunities in soil extension and adoption for Victorian farmers.

 

Explore Vic Hub projects and resources supporting drought resilience across Victoria.

 

Learn more about the United Nations’ International Day for Biodiversity 2026.