Jim Gaston, Birri Gubba Juru Elder and Tony Bugeja, cane farmer with a green turtle for tagging, Bowen, North Queensland. Credit:Kerry Trapnell/WWF Overall the Coca Cola Foundation has contributed $3.25 million to Project Catalyst over the past six years. The video - launched today by the WWF Australia - lets cane farmers tell their own stories without government logos, slogans, rhetoric or ambitions. The cane farmers included Tony Bugeja and his son Mark, who salvaged a cane farm south of Mackay that had been ravaged by 100 years of over-grazing

Also involved were Joe Muscat and his son Steve, who have built a sediment trap that has stopped two metres of soil washing off their land, and Gerry, Sam and Joe Deguara, who use GPS technology to guide tractors to exact locations on their farm, reducing soil compaction and allowing more water to soak in rather than run off the land. Stopping nutrient run-off stops the food supply to the Crown of Thorns starfish, which in turn feed on microscopic algae growing on new coral. In the Burdekin, farmer Denis Pozzebon and his father Ugo show how they have set up recycle pits to capture and reuse 90 per cent of the water that runs off their land. The reluctant star of the video is Mackay cane farmer Tony Bugeja, who concedes it was up to him to make the change. He was bitten by a snake on his cane farm on Thursday morning.

"We live basically 14 km south west of Mackay on the bank of Maclennan Creek," he said. "This particular patch of dirt, it was the most eroded, degraded, depressed land that I have ever seen," he said. "It was a disgrace. It would have been 100 years of just over grazing – basically. "We were losing soil of course through soil erosion. It was just overgrown with pests, diseases – and we were the silly buggers that had to try and clean it up." Collectively, 50 per cent of cane and soya bean farmers in the Central Queensland region have changed the way they operate their farms over the past six years.

According to data provided by WWF from the three groups, the 78 farmers' efforts are beginning to show reduction in nutrients reaching the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. 1 - Particulate nitrogen – a reduction of 72 tonnes per year; 2 - Particulate phosphorus – a reduction of 34 tonnes per year; 3- Dissolved inorganic nitrogen – a reduction of 64 tonnes per year; 4 - Reactive phosphorus – a reduction of 13 tonnes per year; and

5 – Pesticides – a reduction of 551 kilograms per year. Britta Schaffelke from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, said a lot of good work has been done and "momentum is underway". "We have to keep that momentum going," Ms Schaffelke said. "The message I would like the farmers to know is that we are there to measure what good impacts, what benefits their actions on the land will have," she said. "But it will take another decade or so, until we have clear data that says, 'Yes, we have made a difference'."

Tony Bugeja was taken to Bowen and off to the reef by Birri Gubba Juru indigenous elder Jim Gaston and shown turtles who feed on the seagrass, which is impacted by nutrient run-off. "I'm glad I went because it gave me a real look at what my actions, on my farm, can affect the sea," he said. "It was enlightening. Really opened my eyes. We went out to the water and Jim caught this turtle and handed it to me. "And then when he was tagging it he actually gave me the privilege of naming the turtle. "And Jim wrote it down, 'Tony Bugeja - Tommy the turtle'."

After releasing 'Tommy', Tony Bugeja said he understood a little more of where his actions on the farm had an impact. "Jim's looking after the animals that are in the sea, and I think we're looking after the land that we're trying to make a living on." WWF- Australia chief executive Dermot O'Gorman said the reductions achieved by the Project Catalyst farmers were a tremendous example to other farmers. "If those reductions were achieved across the wider sugar cane growing areas, we would see very significant reductions," he said. Though Project Catalyst started around the Mackay-Whitsunday region, it is now attracting some cane farmers in the Ingham to Townsville to Cairns area, WWF's water quality expert Doug Yuile said.

This northern area is closer to the Crown of Thorns starfish area. "To arrest those Crown of Thorns starfish – which is the main human cause of coral decline – we have to deal with the nitrogen coming off those cane farms," he said. Coca Cola South Pacific spokesperson Michelle Allen said the company wanted to be innovators in sustainable agriculture. Ms Allen said it was first water project supported by the Coca Cola Foundation in the South Pacific, which they have added $500,000 to the $2.75 million they have provided to the project. "This new grant will not only ensure the continuation of the Project, but also help put our Australian growers on the world map," Ms Allen said.

Farmers will present their findings at a Project Catalyst Growers Forum from March 1 to 3 in Townsville. Like this story? Be our friend on Facebook.