A CSIRO project has looked at the impacts, at farm level, of adopting best practice conservation management in Queensland, to optimise biodiversity on grassy eucalypt woodlands, which are ecologically diverse yet under-represented in conservation reserves. Modelling of differences in profitability between present management systems and alternative conservation measures projected a decline in net profit of 29 to 77 per cent if conservation measures were adopted. The project concluded there were limited prospects for wide-scale private adoption of the conservation principles in the absence of significant public support. A new project will attempt to resolve some of the economic and other issues.