Ensuring the continued viability of rural and regional communities in Australia has become a high priority politically. Economic and environmental forces are perceived as threats to viability. Declining terms of trade for agricultural commodities along with decreased relative prices for...

Over the past 220 years since European settlement, Australia has amassed a diverse array of historic heritage places. Currently there are approximately 200,000 places listed on statutory heritage lists across the nation. Owing to the public-good nature of heritage, community values for the...

This paper will briefly describe the history and intent of the NTA 1993; survey outcomes flowing from its implementation, especially in reference to economic implications of agreements between parties; and consider future prospects, particularly by reference to the amended legislation which came...

Many environmental policy issues involve conflicts between nature conservation and economic development. The economic rationale behind deciding among alternative options is predicated on some form of benefit-cost analysis (BCA). Key issues to date have been non-market valuation, the...

Evaluating land use change in economic frameworks often requires non-market values to be assessed. However non-market valuation experiments can be sensitive to the way the trade offs are framed. The aim of the research reported in this paper was to examine the influence of varying the valuation...

Improving smallholder welfare in the rural sectors of developing countries requires improving access to both input and product markets. Success, however, in developing sustainable and mutually beneficial links between smallholders and agribusiness has been variable. Two recent ACIAR studies...

As Australia begins to implement the National Water Initiative, there are lessons to be learned from past experience in rural adjustment and rural assistance schemes. The experience is rich and the messages powerful. Government intervention in the process of adjustment and change can impede,...

This paper examines the influence of public greenspace on the life satisfaction of residents of Australia’s capital cities. A positive relationship is found between the percentage of public greenspace in a resident’s local area and their self-reported life satisfaction. On average, it is...

Despite its small area and intensively cropped landscape, East Java accounts for 30% of Indonesia’s beef cattle population. About two million households draw on family labour to raise cattle in backyard sheds and small enclosures, largely for cash income. The paper reports on a study in two...