Consequently, a flexible suite of incentives is required to support practice change across these different cohorts of graziers. Different incentives work for different groups of graziers, so layering complementary incentives is likely to achieve outcomes across the grazing community. Incentives include financial, non-financial and regulatory mechanisms to encourage adoption. Non-financial incentives include the provision of information and support through extension and training services, as well as recognising and rewarding high performers. Financial incentives reward particular behaviours and include market-based instruments, grants and subsidies. Regulation is used by governments to proscribe or limit undesirable behaviour( and is not considered as part of this report). Incentives can be used to address market and institutional failures and knowledge constraints that are contributing to the continuation of practices that accelerate erosion.
A public and private benefits analysis has been used to derive a set of guiding principles about the appropriateness of non-regulatory incentives for different practices in the BBB. Other factors, however, also need to be considered when deciding on an incentive-based approach and the best mix of incentives. These other factors include engagement objectives, implementation costs, institutional fit and so forth. Overall, we stress that a mix of incentives should be used to facilitate engagement and adoption across different cohorts of landholders. We also find some forms of incentives cannot be implemented in the LDC Project( due to the project’ s short time-frame, scale and authority). As a collaborative project though, the LDC has the potential to influence the development and trial of incentives and supporting institutional arrangements in the longer-term.
Six substantive recommendations( and a number of sub-recommendations) to support and trial incentives within the LDC project and to support longer-term practice change are presented for consideration by the LDC Project Panel. Recommendations relate to the current LDC project and timeframes and to the LDC’ s ability to influence longer- term outcomes.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CURRENT LDC PROJECT RECOMMENDATION 1: DEVELOP A GULLY CALCULATOR
As more major gully restoration projects are implemented and evaluated, incentives for gully remediation should become more discriminating, based upon the potential public benefits. Development of a transparent metric to estimate sediment load reduction for individual projects through development of a‘ gully calculator’ would provide a more robust way to target funding to projects based on an assessment of benefits and cost. Given that the LDC project is already characterising gullies in the BBB and trialling remediation methods, the development of a tool that allows site-based estimates of sediment benefits is feasible and would be a significant legacy of this project. This should build on existing work in this area.
RECOMMENDATION 2: COLLECT / IMPROVE DATA ABOUT LAND AND LANDHOLDERS
There is great heterogeneity of landholder types, motivations, capacity to change and history of engagement, as well as land condition, management practices and presence of gullies( that may be a legacy of previous land condition and practices). A greater understanding of the BBB landscape and enterprises, including social and economic characteristics, would enable LDC to better target incentives and evaluate the fit between incentives and different groups of graziers.
Landholders driving change: Exploring new incentives | vii