Shrimp production in Thailand has historically been undertaken in the saline and brackish waters of coastal mangroves. In recent years rising demand and prices for shrimp and falling productivity of mangrove areas have motivated an expansion of shrimp production into the fresh-water margins of...

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...

Much of Australia’s native vegetation has been cleared or altered as a result of agricultural development. The native vegetation that remains on private land is highly fragmented and continues to be degraded and modified due to various land use and environmental pressures. One of the major...

The Desert Uplands is a biogeographic region in central-western Queensland that lies within the rangelands area of Australia. In the region, many pastoralists are clearing the scrub and woodland vegetation in order to improve production for cattle grazing. Only limited production gains are...

The NSW, Victorian and Commonwealth Governments are in the process of corporatising the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme. As part of this process a water inquiry was established to assist in the determination of the environmental operating conditions of the new business, Snowy Hydro Ltd....

The widespread clearance of native vegetation has been identified as one of the major environmental issues facing Australia. Impacts of clearing include dryland salinity, weed invasion, soil erosion, soil structural decline and the loss of species. Development of effective polices to deal with...

In their 1982 publication ‘Lessons from the Ord’ Davidson and Graham-Taylor exposed the lack of information and the prevalence of political agendas in far-reaching regional development decisions in northern Australia during the 1960s. This paper revisits regional development issues in...

Management of environmental externalities of agricultural production has become a necessity to attain sustainable and efficient use of resources. Policies to promote externality mitigation are moving away from command and control toward industry self-management guided through best-practice...

The Burdekin delta in north Queensland is the most important area for irrigated sugarcane production in Australia. Conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water is a common practice in this area, and requires that the groundwater systems be carefully managed to ensure the long-term economic...