Fed: Australia should export outback knowledge - CSIRO

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Fed: Australia should export outback knowledge - CSIRO

CANBERRA, Aug 28 AAP - Australia had a window of opportunity to become a world leaderin exporting knowledge of how to live, work and survive in the desert, the CSIRO saidtoday.

Australians already had great knowledge of how to live in arid lands and should exporttheir experience, CSIRO's Dr Mark Stafford Smith said.

"Australia has a hot new export product - knowledge about how to live, work and besustainable in desert conditions," Dr Stafford Smith said in a statement.

"A third of the world's land surface is desert or semi-arid and it is home to a billionpeople, all striving to build a more prosperous and sustainable future for themselves."

Australia should capitalise on its desert knowledge in the same way it used its know-howof the wine and mineral industry, he said.

"Across the world, people living in arid regions face special challenges and difficulties,usually compounded by their remoteness," Dr Stafford Smith said.

"That's something we in Australia are good at overcoming, and are very creative indevising new answers.

"This know-how is going to be in big demand, right round the world.

"It means that, at the same time as we tackle our own problems and difficulties, weare devising ways to help others to tackle theirs.

"And this can potentially become a big industry for us, if we get our act together."

Dr Stafford-Smith will tomorrow deliver his ideas to a Desert Knowledge conferencein Alice Springs for the Year of the Outback.

AAP lm/daw/ph l

KEYWORD: OUTBACK SMITH