Ecologically sustainable development (ESD) is defined as:

 Using conserving and enhancing the community’s resources so that ecological processes, on which life depends, are maintained, and the total quality of life, now and in the future, can be increased (National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development, Commonwealth of Australia 1992).

Signposts is a framework consisting of the contributions that an agricultural industry makes to ESD and pathways intended to achieve or modify those contributions.

Signposts proposes to measure an agricultural industry’s contributions to ESD in terms of its social, economic and environmental contributions in both the short and long term.

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The view has been taken that sustainable development and ecologically sustainable development are equivalent terms although it could be argued that the definition of ESD places additional requirements on natural capital. The way in which we are proposing to disaggregate an industry’s contributions to ESD is applicable whichever view is adopted.