Figure 6.2 . The recommended mix of tools required to implement water quality improvement in the Great Barrier Reef catchments . ( GBRWST , 2016 , p . 46 )
6.4.2 The Lower Burdekin
In the Lower Burdekin sugarcane area grants , extension and more recently , reverse tenders have been the most commonly applied mechanisms for management practice change . Evaluation of these approaches is provided in Part III of this report .
Delivery options considered in the Burdekin WQIP 2016 included regulation ( as described above ), financial incentives , extension , research and technology development . These are still relevant to the region now , and this mix of mechanisms is currently being adopted by the delivery partners in the Lower Burdekin . It is noteworthy that there is a recent positive shift towards more performance-based investment programs in the region . For example , under the final year ( 2018-2019 ) of the Reef Trust Program ( Reef Trust III Reef Alliance Growing a Better Great Barrier Reef Program ), NQ Dry Tropics are utilising the recently developed online Paddock to Reef Project Selector (‘ P2R Projector Tool ’ https :// p2rprojector . net . au / about ) based on Paddock to Reef program paddock and catchment modelling outputs . It is a spatially and project-specific prioritisation tool to assist program managers in the process of assessing and prioritising funding for management practice improvement projects . Each project is assessed using the responses to the P2R program ‘ before ’ and ‘ after ’ practice questions of responses to a set of ‘ before ’ and ‘ after ’ practice questions , its spatial extent ( multiple paddocks ) and proposed budget . The tool predicts a change in sediment , nutrients and pesticides export / loss due to implementation of the project . Estimates are based on the underlying soil type , climatic conditions and the management practices before and after the project . Users can select multiple projects from a map to display a list of projects that can then be sorted ( e . g . by maximum DIN reductions , or by maximum reduction in soil loss ).
As described in the 2017 Scientific Consensus Statement , modelled management practice adoption scenarios indicate that it will be challenging to meet the 2025 targets with the current suite of agricultural management practices across the GBR catchments . However , scenarios conducted to support the Burdekin WQIP 2016 strongly indicated that a combination of nutrient , pesticide and irrigation management improvements will progress the region towards the targets identified for the Lower Burdekin sugarcane areas ( with estimates of almost 80 per cent reductions in DIN if B class practices were widely adopted ). While these scenarios have not been re-run , it is anticipated that this is still largely the case . However , as
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