LDC New Incentives Report | Page 24

Type Name Description and examples Strengths Challenges
Subsidies Indirect, once-off payment linked to an input to production. Can be linked to a contract. E. g.:
� Fencing subsidy � Subsidised fees to attend training � Diesel subsidy
� Flexible. Can be used for big and small projects
� Recipients usually provide some level of in kind and / or financial contribution to the project
� Does not take advantage of heterogeneity of landscapes and landholders and therefore potential for gains from trade and efficiencies
� Very unlikely to engage those that have not engaged before
� Usually one off so does not support change over time
� Requires extensive information by the NRM body to know the right rate to pay
� Often not accompanied by monitoring and compliance so often no accountability or reportability
Stewardship payments
Ongoing( over the life of the contract) payments for stewardship. These can be paid on actions or outputs or outcomes. These can be determined individually or allocated as a part of a competitive process such as a tender. E. g.:
� National environmental stewardship program
� Fitzroy tender( competitive allocation)
� If paying for outcomes may pay for more than one action over time
If conducted as a competitive process:
� Reveals the cost for landholders to conduct activities
� Potential to be a more cost-effective approach to allocating a fixed budget than a fixed price scheme
� Informs landholders of the public benefit of land management
� The competitive process may be of interest to landholders who have not previously engaged with programs
� Deciding on duty of care over which stewardship is rewarded
� Deciding on the correct level of payment
� Budget to facilitate payments
� As it is fixed price, does not utilize the heterogeneity of the landscape and landholder cost to get the greatest bang for the buck
� May not engage with landholders who do not usually engage
If conducted as a competitive process:
� Need enough sellers to be competitive( which may not be the case if the tender was only available in BBB)
� Need to generate a benefits index to assess offers for value for money
� Design and implementation of such a scheme can be complicated which can generate high transaction costs to design, implement and administer
� Need to consider if paying over time or one-off payments for one off action
22 | Landholders driving change: Exploring new incentives