Appendix D Lessons learnt from previous programs
D. 1
Introduction
A review was conducted of the literature( peer reviewed and grey literature) that evaluated the success of programs designed to improve land management practices of those involved in agriculture in general, and graziers in particular, within the Burdekin river basin and more widely across Australia.
In general, the review revealed a paucity of high quality impact evaluation studies regarding such programs. Ideally a study would compare the behaviors of landholders before and after their participation in such a program, whilst also comparing behavior changes over the same period of landholders that did not participate( providing a control group) allowing the evaluation of how behaviors have evolved with and without the program. Ideal studies would be able to assess additionality – that is how much additional environmental benefit has been generated from the program compared to that which would have occurred anyway. There were very few studies that fit these criteria. The review did reveal a small number of studies that focused on the behaviors of participants before and after the programs, however. Further studies based on the experiences of participants identified factors that may make the participants more or less likely to participate in future programs. The lessons learnt from both these types of studies are summarized below.
D. 2
D. 2.1
Lessons learnt and recommendations for future programs
Cost effectiveness of programs
No research was identified that compared the cost effectiveness of different incentive programs in delivering improvements to water quality. However, research has investigated the cost effectiveness of reductions in pollutants to different regions, determining benchmarks that can be used for assessing future projects. For the reduction of sediment load across the whole GBR region, the suggested benchmark was estimated at $ 259 per tonne, however reductions in the Burdekin specifically were found to be more cost effective than elsewhere with the cost for this region alone estimated at $ 106 per tonne( Rolfe & Windle, 2016). Research also suggested that voluntary conservation programs such as conservation covenants are likely to generate low additionality( Moon & Cocklin, 2011). This implies that financial incentives were paid for encouraging behaviors that would have occurred anyway without the incentive, due to the landholder being conservation minded or claiming incentives for committing not to use certain for production purposes when such land was non-productive anyway( Moon & Cocklin, 2011).
D. 2.2 Evaluation of different methods of allocating funding:
Comparison of applications for funding by i) use of a scorecard / multi criteria analysis approach with ii) an auction approach( involving economic assessment of environmental outcome and cost
90 | Landholders driving change: Exploring new incentives