Australian farmers are calling for recognition of their involvement in meeting the Kyoto Targets, said the president of the National Farmers Federation, the peak body for agriculturalists in Australia. Fiona Simson, the president of the National Farmers Federation (NFF), said that Australian farmers continue to lead the world in improved sustainability and emissions reduction and that it is time to address the inequities of the past. “Farmers have been at the forefront of Australia’s efforts to meet climate change targets for decades, although not always knowingly,” Simson said in a statement. In the 1990s-2000s, farmers in Queensland and New South Wales became victims of land clearing legislation, which removed their property rights without compensation. Australia adopted the Kyoto agreement in 1997. The outcome was that landholders made a major contribution to meeting and even overachieving on the Kyoto commitment targets, Simson said. “A significant proportion of more than 400 million …