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The focus of this report is to test if protection values at a particular GBR site may be easily transferred to other case studies of interest in the region. The research involved valuing three local case studies in the GBR and testing how values were consistent across site and population characteristics. The sites were chosen to reflect substantial heterogeneity in extent, ecological composition and condition, while values were assessed for both local and distant populations. The results are encouraging, indicating that although significant heterogeneity was identified with the mixed logit models, values were robust to various site and population differences. No significant difference in protection values between the three local case studies could be identified, and there was no significant difference in values between the local population and the Brisbane population. However, some evidence for distance effects was identified for the Brisbane population, with closer sites valued more highly. As well, potential losses were valued more highly (in absolute terms) than potential gains. The implication of these results is that protection values are likely to be higher for closer reef areas with risks of losses than these with opportunities for improvements.

Metrics for evaluating environmental trade-offs can be developed with varying levels of consistency across case study sites. A key issue is whether standard evaluation experiments can be conducted over multiple sites, or whether experiments have to be tailored to each case study application. To test how useful a consistent approach is, choice modelling (CM) has been used in a number of countries. Choice modelling assess the trade-offs households are prepared to make between water use restrictions, maintaining environmental conditions in waterways, and increased water costs. This research paper reports the results of the Queensland survey. The results show that it is not possible to downplay case study framing issues and that it is not appropriate to standardise applications across case studies that have different characteristics.

Policy makers are often interested in transferring non-market estimates of environmental values from a ‘source’ study to predict economic values at a ‘target’ site. While most applications of the benefit transfer process involve an opportunistic search for suitable source studies, there are some examples available of more systematic approaches to developing a framework of values for benefit transfer processes. A key issue in developing such a framework is to deal with adjustment factors, where value estimates might vary systematically according to the context of the trade-offs. Previous research has identified that large differences in scope, such as between national and regional contexts, do affect values and hence benefit transfer. The research reported in this paper indicates that such differences are not significant for smaller scope variations, such as between state and regional contexts. These results provide some promise that systematic databases for benefit transfer can be developed.

Designing a choice modelling (CM) experiment to place a value on increasing protection of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) raises complex issues. The size and diversity of the GBR, and the number of different pressures impacting on it, mean protection and improvement scenarios can be drafted in several different ways. This report discusses some of the considerations in selecting, describing and combining choice attributes. It also looks at how to incorporate tests for geographic scale (size) and scope (complexity) differences into the design of the CM survey instrument. The potential to include information about management options designed to achieve increased protection, and the associated risk and uncertainty, is also discussed.

made in one situation to related circumstances. The benefit transfer process is typically reliant on the availability of a number of source studies which have appropriate levels of reliability and relevance to the issue of interest. However, the limited number of non-market valuation studies to draw on for source values currently limits the benefit transfer process. In this paper, an alternative approach to benefit transfer is outlined where a series of valuation studies were specifically performed to build a reference data base of values for benefit transfer purposes. The choice modelling technique was used to estimate community values for protecting soil, water and vegetation stocks in Queensland, Australia, where both state and regional populations were surveyed to generate value estimates in a variety of contexts. The results provide a database where government and natural resource management agencies can access generic estimates of environmental values.

The Fitzroy basin in central Queensland is the largest basin in the Great Barrier Reef catchment area. The large quantities of sediment and nutrient export are of concern and come predominantly from diffuse sources in the grazing industry. The focus of the research reported in this paper was on the potential supply of mitigation actions from this group. This potential supply is very difficult to establish ex ante. However, such information may be crucial to the design of a quantity-based mechanism that requires supply of mitigation actions. In this study, the use of a stated preference technique called “choice modelling” and an experimental economics technique termed “experimental auctions” were applied to ascertain potential supply relationships.

The potential supply of water quality mitigation actions from diffuse sources is difficult to assess, although important for designing policies to encourage such actions. In this paper the design and results of a Choice Modelling(CM) valuation to assess the potential supply of rural mitigation actions from altered grazing management are reported. The valuation was focused on the supply of mitigating services (specified riparian management standards), the total cost of provision, and the extent to which these costs varied between landholders. CM has traditionally been applied to environmental valuation issues, but there is increasing use of the method to design agricultural markets. This study extends that application to markets for environmental actions.

Growers in the sugarcane industry have been struggling under financial pressure for several years. One option to improve farm viability might be to diversify farm enterprise income. Choice Modelling, an economic valuation technique, was used to explore the trade-offs growers make between different attributes of diversification, and how their choices may be related to certain socio-economic characteristics. Application of the technique involved surveys of cane growers in three regions of Central Queensland. This is a novel approach to assessing grower intentions that has the potential to reveal detailed information about influences on grower choices.

Option values may be an important component of non-use values when development options for environmental assets are considered. These are values that the community might hold for maintaining options to make future choices about allocating resources. However, option values are very difficult to define, at both theoretical and practical levels, and there has been a retreat over the past decade to the more inclusive concept of option prices. In the present paper, estimates of option values are reported for retaining unallocated water in reserve rather than using it for current development. The use of option values rather than option prices is justified on the basis that the focus is on nonuse values, and demand and supply uncertainties have been minimised. These values have been assessed through a series of nine choice modelling surveys that have been conducted over a 3-year period in the Fitzroy River Basin in central Queensland. The results are then extrapolated to the case study areas within the basin to assess whether unallocated water should be held in reserve or used for development.

Irrigated agriculture is an important source of economic activity in the Fitzroy Basin. The issue of what water is still available for development in the basin and how it might be allocated between different interests groups in the region remains topical. The Water Allocation and Management Plan for the Fitzroy that has been drafted by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines caps overall water extraction from the basin, but allows further development to potentially occur in most of the sub-catchments. In this paper the options for allocating the water resources and the mechanisms by which they might be allocated are discussed. The values that society might have for reserving water resources from development are estimated from a Choice Modelling experiment, and compared to the net production costs available from different development options.

Considerations of equity are important components of sustainable development criteria, but remain difficult to incorporate in economic analysis. Various non-market environmental valuation techniques have been developed and refined to incorporate environmental factors into economic valuation but little consideration is given to social factors. A recent Choice Modelling (CM) study has examined issues relating to the trade offs between development and conservation in the Fitzroy River Basin. The study assessed the values and opinions of various populations selected on a geographical basis. This paper will describe a complimentary CM survey that included Aboriginal cultural heritage as an attribute of floodplain development, and assessed the values and opinions of both the Indigenous and the general community. Differences between the two groups are examined and the policy implications discussed.