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Note: The Pew Charitable Trust is calling for an overhaul of WA's pastoral leases, to keep more landholders in the outback. The global NGO says the landscape needs people living in it, to manage pests and reduce the bushfire risk. It wants the State Government to relax pastoral lease restrictions, to allow landholders to do diversify and keep their businesses viable into the future.
DAVID MARK: In Western Australia, a global conservation organisation is calling for an overhaul of the state's pastoral leases to keep more landholders in the outback.
The live export ban in 2011 hit the state's pastoralists hard and has left many businesses struggling to recover.
The Pew Charitable Trust says that's a problem because the outback needs people to manage pest species and reduce the bushfire risk.
From Perth, Anna Vidot reports.
ANNA VIDOT: It's hard to comprehend the scale.
The Australian outback covers approximately 70 per cent of the continent, and about 40 per cent of that is covered by pastoral leases.
In Western Australia, that's a huge swathe of the state, and for generations, it's been regarded as prime livestock country.
TONY SEABROOK: It's country that's not suitable for agriculture, as in growing crops in the normal way we do, but it's extremely...