Newsletter on bioeconomic and social research on
Sustainability and Economics in Agriculture
Issue 11, December 2001
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Newsletter on bioeconomic and social research on |
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Editor:
Dave Pannell, University of Western Australia, email
David.Pannell@uwa.edu.au SEA Project main funder: Grains Research and Development Corporation Address of the SEA News web site: http://www1.crcsalinity.com.au/newsletter/sea/ |
In This Issue
Editorial
E-letters
In Brief
New web site for Cooperative Research Centre for Plant-Based Management of
Dryland Salinity - "Connections - Farm, Food and Resource Issues" - Biodiversity
economics and policy
Articles
Harry Potter and the pendulums of perpetual motion
Emerging markets for environmental markets
What is the value of a sustainability indicator?
Farmer
perceptions of the herbicide resistance ‘wall’
Public
funding for environmental issues: Where to now?
Regular
Bits and Pieces
News and coming events -
Overview of the SEA Project - People in the SEA team - Publications available
Economic policy instruments (or "market-based" instruments") are flavour of the month in some spheres of environmental policy in Australia and in several other countries. This issue includes two articles on the subject, both preaching caution. There is an article about the value of monitoring sustainability indicators, based on a presentation I made in Armidale NSW in 2000. Rick Llewellyn provides a very interesting paper on farmer perceptions of herbicide resistance, revealing some areas where current perceptions are probably astray, and others where they are accurate. Finally there is an article from my presentation at the 4th Annual Symposium of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, held in Melbourne in October. The Symposium focused on public funding for environmental issues, and this article addresses a range of issues on that topic. The last issue of SEA News generated an unusually large amount of email, and an interesting selection of correspondence is included below. Be sure to check out the long version of Graeme Olsen's letter in the page containing full-length versions of the letters.
David Pannell, December 2001
Thanks for the latest version of SEA News (Issue
#10). It's always full of stimulating articles. I notice that several of the
articles mention the potential social effects of salinity treatments, including
those of large-scale, commercial woody perennial crops. The articles all drew a
parallel between the development of woody crops for the wheatbelt and the blue
gum experience in higher rainfall areas, where a dispersed population of
independent farmers is being replaced by a more centralised population of
employees of timber management companies. The articles suggest that a similar
pattern will occur in the wheatbelt. I think a more positive social outcome will
occur, because of different farming conditions in the wheatbelt, and different
characteristics of the woody perennial crops likely to be developed.
Graeme Olsen
I find your newsletter very interesting as I am involved in research on
dryland salinity. I am undertaking some salinity monitoring work with the
Boorowa Landcare group in NSW. I have been monitoring a sub-catchment on which
the Landcare group introduced management practices of alley farming and annual
crops, now it is all sown to perennial pastures between the alleys of trees.
There is no clear evidence of lowering in watertables, but things do not appear
to be getting worse. There appear to be very few long term studies of this
nature and I have difficulties in getting funding to keep mine going.
Basil Baldwin
Thanks for the latest issue of SEA News. I found it interesting and in
particular your article with Michele Marra and Amir Abadi Ghadim.
Thilak Mallawaarachi
Great paper - Economic Dimensions of Landcare. We have been feeling this
same frustration for many years and the lack of analytical capacity in Landcare
at a business level means any activities basically represent a token gesture -
why would you adopt more broadly when the business outcomes are unknown (or
perhaps blindingly obvious!).
David Thompson
Thanks for the SEA news. Very informative. I wish other sectors of NRM
were so well organised.
André Taylor
Full length versions of these (and some additional) letters can be read at http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/letter11.htm
New web site for Cooperative Research Centre
for Plant-Based Management of Dryland Salinity.
A web site for
the new CRC is available at
http://www1.crcsalinity.com
"Connections - Farm, Food and
Resource Issues". This is
a freely accessible new web-based publication targeted at non-specialist
readers. "Connections" is a welcome joint initiative of the Australian
Agricultural and Resource Economics Society and the Australian Agribusiness
Association. The first issue has the theme of environmental and resource
management policy issues, and includes articles on market-based instruments,
environmental funding, salinity, duty of care, and social aspects of natural
resource management. The editors are aiming for entertaining as well informative
and topical content. Browse the first issue at:
http://www.agribusiness.asn.au/Connections/2001_1/index.htm
Biodiversity economics and policy.
An excellent set of
studies looking at policy aspects of biodiversity conservation has been
published by the Productivity Commission during 2001. The latest, "Harnessing
Private Sector Conservation of Biodiversity" was released on 4 December 2001.
This report is available for free download from the Commission's web site at:
http://www.pc.gov.au/research/commres/hpscb/index.html. Other papers in the
series can also be accessed from that site, including the following:
Constraints on Private Conservation: Some Challenges in Managing Australia’s Tropical Rainforests
Creating Markets for Biodiversity: A Case Study of Earth Sanctuaries Ltd
Constraints on Private Conservation of Biodiversity
Cost Sharing for Biodiversity Conservation: A Conceptual Framework
A Duty of Care for the Protection of Biodiversity on Land
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Harry Potter and the
pendulums of perpetual motion: Economic policy instruments for environmental
management
by Dave
Pannell
"To protect the ‘muggles’ from themselves, the ‘economic wizards’ probably need to be more careful and more explicit about not only the strengths but also the limitations of economic instruments." |
There is a boom of interest in “economic policy instruments” or “market-based mechanisms”, such as tradable pollution permits, auction-based systems, and environmental credits. Most booms precede a bust, and this one will not be an exception. Economists should be advising policy makers that the potential contribution of economic instruments is probably fairly limited, particularly in the case of salinity. It should also be pointed out that inappropriate application of economic instruments will actually reduce the efficiency of resource use. The full article is in "Connections - Farm, Food and Resource Issues".
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Emerging markets for
environmental markets by Martin Van
Bueren "While the concept of a market in environmental services is appealing, the application of these markets to the agricultural sector (as opposed to industrial emissions) poses a range of challenging problems." |
Over the past year or so,
market-based instruments have attracted unprecedented attention in Australia as
potential tools for encouraging and supporting farmers who provide
"environmental services". Such services might include water table control,
carbon sequestration, water filtration, and biodiversity protection. The issue
is still in its infancy in Australia, but several other countries are
experimenting with various programs for commercialising environmental services.
The United States is at the forefront in this endeavour, and the United Kingdom
is beginning to investigate alternative mechanisms. This report documents the
findings of a study trip that was made to these countries in June 2001, and
provides a critical appraisal of the extent to which environmental markets will
play a role in Australian natural resource management. The report was released
on 29 November 2001.
It is available from the RIRDC’s website:
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/AFT/01-162.pdf
(117K)
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What is the value of a
sustainability indicator? Economic and social issues in monitoring and
management for sustainability
by Dave Pannell
"Groundwater monitoring does appear to be a powerful awareness-raising tool, but some farmers discontinue monitoring even though they have a rising water table." |
Many factors influence the value to a farmer of monitoring a sustainability
indicator. Based on an economic model, a survey of farmers and data on actual
farmer monitoring of piezometers, a number of important insights are obtained.
The value of monitoring will vary by issue, by indicator, by region, and by
farm. In many cases, the value of continuing to monitor would fall over time as
knowledge and understanding increase. For this reason, even successful programs
to promote monitoring by farmers may have a limited life expectancy. It is not
possible to conclude that monitoring indicators is, in general, a good thing.
For the full article, see this web page:
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Farmer perceptions of the
herbicide resistance ‘wall’
by
Rick Llewellyn, Bob Lindner,
Dave Pannell and Steve Powles "There are a substantial number of growers who expect that cropping land will gain a resistance problem regardless of how it is managed." |
The prospect of a serious herbicide resistance problem has often been
referred to by agronomists as ‘hitting the wall’; a point from which the
established selective herbicide dependent cropping system can continue no
further. In this paper, we examine herbicide resistance in Western Australia and
farmers’ perceptions of the ‘resistance wall’. Are we there yet, is it
avoidable, is it moveable, and is it costly?
For the full article, see this web page:
| Public funding for
environmental issues: Where to now?
by
Dave Pannell
"The prime motivation for land use changes on a large scale will be economics. Salinity prevention, if it occurs, will be a spin off from changes made for other reasons. " |
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A large expenditure of public funds for land and water conservation can
easily be justified on the basis that, if it is well spent, it will avoid
substantially greater public costs in the near and distant future.
Unfortunately, it is also easy to spend the funds in a way that has virtually no
sustained benefit. Providing public funds as subsidies to farmers for measures
that are not effective will not only be wasteful, but also morale sapping for
the farmers. We have also tended to devote too many resources to activities
intended to inform and persuade farmers to adopt new farm practices, before we
have developed practices that are suitable for them to adopt.
For the full article, see this web page:
Regular Bits and Pieces
News and Coming Events
Inaugural Annual Australasian Conference: "Valuing the Environment. Economic and Social Values in Environmental Decision-Making", July 2002 in Brisbane, http://www.teroma.coffs.com.au
Overview of the SEA Project
This project has a strong integrative focus, bringing together several sustainability issues and considering their biological, physical and economic implications at the whole-farm level. The main issues being researched in the project are soil salinisation, soil acidification, management of herbicide-resistant weeds, farmer adoption of sustainable practices and the economics of monitoring sustainability indicators. Main funding: Grains Research & Development Corporation. Commencement: 01-Aug-97 Completion: 30-Jun-02
People in the SEA Team
Publications available
As well as the
articles summarised in this Newsletter, the SEA Project has a range of
publications available. A list is shown at the following web page address. You
can view and print most of the papers directly in your browser.
Web page:
http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/seapprs.htm
Papers that focus on
agricultural extension, and adoption and diffusion of innovations in
agriculture:
Web page:
http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/adoppprs.htm
Papers that focus on
dryland salinity:
Web page:
http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/saltpprs.htm
Other issues of SEA News
Copyright note: Some articles in SEA news have subsequently been submitted for publication in journals or books. SEA News contains pre-publication versions of these articles. They have not been subject to peer review, and copyright rests with the authors. When an article is formally published, the version on the SEA News web site is not updated to the published version, as this would violate copyright. However, the citation shown on the web page is updated to allow readers to identify the published version. Readers are encouraged to make use of the material present on the web site, provided that its source is acknowledged. Readers who wish to make direct quotes from an article in SEA News should not attribute the quote to a more formal (e.g. journal) published version of the paper without checking the published version, since the quote may have been alterred or even omitted from the published version.
If you have any comments about SEA News or wish to make additions to or deletions from our mailing list, contact David.Pannell@uwa.edu.au
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