In order to maximize efficiency, should conversation contracts include incentive payments and also be put up for tender? This work uses laboratory experiments to investigate this question. We find that there exists an optimal share of performance payment which yields maximum total stewardship...

Sustainability is the paradigm of our time, yet its use as a guide to planning or decision making is clouded by its ambiguity and the multiplicity of definitions in use. In this paper we address the issue of how best to deal with the multi-faceted nature of sustainability. We outline each of the...

If farming practices are degrading the land by enhancing salinsation and soil erosion, and the appropriate way to deal with the problem is by planting trees or regenerating native brush, farmers are faced with several questions. Assuming a rather homogenous area where cropping yields have been...

By design, tenders are used when costs are unknown. But if costs are unknown, how can we evaluate the tenders, when their evaluation involves measuring their cost-effectiveness? We identify three approaches: theoretical, empirical and experimental. We first use experimental data to compare the...

Modelling complex systems such as multiple-use reservoirs can be challenging. A legitimate question for scientists and modellers is how best to model their management under uncertain rainfall. This paper studies whether it is worth using a stochastic model that requires more effort than a much...

The environmental accounting literature covers both public and private, or corporate, fields. The needs of private firms differ from public organisations in that environmental accounting systems must pay for themselves. Stakeholder analysis and the so-called triple bottom line forget that...

The social and environmental benefits of establishing E. globulus plantations in south west Australia on previously cleared farmland are reviewed. Due to their sensitivity to drought, we study how this risk may affect the return on plantation investments. Productivity reductions of up to 40% in...

Three policy options for greenhouse gas abatement in the predominantly grazing systems of Western Australia are analysed. The two taxation policies (a tax on total emissions, and a tax on methane emissions only) are only effective at extreme tax rates ($85/t CO2 equivalents) where the farming...

Buying environmental services from private landholders using auction mechanisms often involves repeated multi-unit procurement-type auctions. These can either be target-constrained or budget-constrained. Most of the theoretical literature has focused on the former, whereas government agencies...

Building on available theory, this work uses controlled laboratory experiments to investigate the budgetary and the economic performance of competitive tenders for allocating conservation contracts to landholders. Experiments have been replicated in two different countries to check for...