Improved grazing management practices in the catchments of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia: does climate variability influence their adoption by landholders?

Abstract

The declining health of the Great Barrier Reef from diffuse source pollutants has resulted in substantial policy attention on increasing the adoption of improved management practices by agricultural producers. Although economic modelling indicates that many improved management practices are financially rewarding, landholders with dated management practices remain hesitant to change. This research involved bio-economic modelling to understand the variance in private returns for grazing enterprises across a climate cycle. Results show that financial returns to landholders can vary substantially across different 20-year periods of a climate cycle, demonstrating that the variability in expected returns may be an important reason why landholders are cautious about changing their management practices. Although previous research has separately identified financial returns and attitudes to risk and uncertainty of landholders as key influences on decisions concerning adoption of improved management practices, this research demonstrates that it is the interaction between these factors that is important to understand when designing policy settings.

Towards protecting the Great Barrier Reef from land‐based pollution

“…as described by Thorburn & Wilkinson ()) required to reduce land‐based pollution is a substantial socio‐economic challenge (Thorburn et al ., ; Van Grieken et al ., ; Rolfe & Gregg, ). A considerable body of research suggests that landholders who adopt BMPs that maintain their pastures in better condition or apply fertilizer and pesticides at reduced rates are likely to generate better financial returns (Ash et al ., ; O'reagain et al ., ; Van Grieken et al ., ; Star et al ., ). However, several factors may lead to farmers deciding not to consider the adoption of BMPs into their business.…”

“…However, several factors may lead to farmers deciding not to consider the adoption of BMPs into their business. In grazing lands, seasonal economic drivers such as low cash flow commonly experienced by graziers during droughts may encourage overgrazing and reduced ground cover during droughts Star et al, 2015). In sugarcane, aiming to achieve maximum yield to increase sugar mill profitability may encourage overapplication of fertilizers and pesticides (Van Grieken et al, 2013a).…”

“…The challenge of BMP uptake is clearly exhibited in the 2014 Reef Plan Report Card (Queensland Government, ), reporting mostly poor to very poor progress towards the 2018 land management targets (Table c), despite the significant public investment to date (The Great Barrier Reef Water Science Taskforce, ). The variability in cost‐effectiveness across industries, BMPs and landscapes indicates, however, that progress towards achieving Reef Plan targets and goals can be accelerated through spatial prioritization of investment in water quality initiatives (Star et al ., ; Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, ).…”

Assessing the cost for pollutant load reductions in the Great Barrier Reef: a case study

“…The costs highlighted the heterogeneity between locations, land types and the importance of climate sequences (Rolfe and Windle, 2016). Following this more catchment scale costings across adoption of a suite of practices was explored with the outcomes of land condition used as the proxy for land management, and many of the paddock scale outcomes extrapolated to catchments (Star et al, 2015b).…”

Myopia and saliency in renewable resource management

“…Studies have shown that the vast majority of sediment is generated by over‐stocking and poor grazing land management that also reduce resource quality (Star et al . , ). Behaviours in these contexts may be driven by a complex set of factors, but recent work indicates that bounded rationality and behavioural aspects may be important (Rolfe and Gregg ).…”