James Todd

The science of biodiversity conservation has come of age in Australia. The combined effect of better information on conservation priorities and improved mechanism design means that it is now possible to implement cost-effective biodiversity conservation schemes. We outline recent advances in the development of databases, mapping tools and concepts for characterising the quality and spatial attributes (location, size, connectivity) of native vegetation and species' habitat. The conservation strategies that provide impetus for these developments are emphasised. The paper also highlights the role of ideas from information economics in stimulating thinking about mechanism design. How the new information about biodiversity can improve the efficiency of policy mechanisms is outlined. Specific attention is given to payments for conservation services, environmental management systems, voluntary programs, and catchment-wide decision-making processes.

To reduce global biodiversity loss, there is an urgent need to determine the most efficient allocation of conservation resources. Recently, there has been a growing trend for many governments to supplement public ownership and management of reserves with incentive programs for conservation on private land. At the same time, policies to promote conservation on private land are rarely evaluated in terms of their ecological consequences. This raises important questions, such as the extent to which private land conservation can improve conservation outcomes, and how it should be mixed with more traditional public land conservation. We address these questions, using a general framework for modelling environmental policies and a case study examining the conservation of endangered native grasslands to the west of Melbourne, Australia. Specifically, we examine three policies that involve: i) spending all resources on creating public conservation areas; ii) spending all resources on an ongoi...

To reduce global biodiversity loss, there is an urgent need to determine the most efficient allocation of conservation resources. Recently, there has been a growing trend for many governments to supplement public ownership and management of reserves with incentive programs for conservation on private land. At the same time, policies to promote conservation on private land are rarely evaluated in terms of their ecological consequences. This raises important questions, such as the extent to which private land con- servation can improve conservation outcomes, and how it should be mixed with more traditional public land conservation. We address these questions, using a general framework for modelling environmental policies and a case study examining the conservation of endangered native grasslands to the west of Mel- bourne, Australia. Specifically, we examine three policies that involve: (i) spending all resources on cre- ating public conservation areas; (ii) spending all resources on ...

In response to the increasing loss of native vegetation and biodiversity, a growing number of countries have adopted “offsetting” policies that seek to balance local habitat destruction by restoring, enhancing and/or protecting similar but separate habitat. Although these policies often have a stated aim of producing a “net gain” or “no net loss” in environmental benefits, it is challenging to determine the potential impacts of a policy and if, or when, it will achieve its objectives. In this paper we address these questions with a general approach that uses predictive modelling under uncertainty to quantify the ecological impacts of different offset policies. This is demonstrated with a case study to the west of Melbourne, Australia where a proposed expansion of Melbourne’s urban growth boundary would result in a loss of endangered native grassland, requiring offsets to be implemented as compensation. Three different offset policies were modelled: i) no restrictions on offset locat...