Browsing by Author "Ward, John R."

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Aligning Policy and Real World Settings: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of the Effectiveness of Market Based and Community Governance Instruments in Managing a Commonly Shared Water Resource
(2006) Straton, Anna; Ward, John R.
"The actions of people interacting together to govern common pool resources are guided and governed by formal legislation and regulations and 'informal' attitudes, shared norms and heuristics. Tensions potentially arise when sets of rules intersect and interact, especially sets of formal and informal rules. If those crafting or changing formal rules do not understand how particular sets of rules affect actions and outcomes in a particular ecological and cultural setting, these rule changes may result in rapid, unexpected, and possibly perverse outcomes (Ostrom, 2005). Thus, the effectiveness and durability of a novel set of formal rules and entitlements depends on the degree of integration with existing institutions and the capacity of mechanisms enabling people to adjust to new and changing circumstances. "This paper formally evaluates the durability and cost effectiveness of a novel set of formal rules regarding water use in an irrigation region of Australia and their compatibility with extant informal rules. A rising saline aquifer in the Coleambally Irrigation Area, a corollary of water abstraction and irrigation application, constitutes a common pool resource, characterised by costly exclusion and rival utilisation for regional irrigators. We report on theoretical insights from institutional analysis, network theory and deliberative and participatory methods, and empirically based outcomes of different institutional structures observed in an experimental simulation. Experimental economics was used to test the efficacy of both formal market institutions and group crafted voluntary social contracts to manage the common pool water resource. Based on allied biophysical research, the experimental setting relies on a catchment analogue, which represents the economic decision making and trading environment facing farmers. Observed behavioural responses to policy initiatives were compared according to two metrics: aggregate groundwater recharge and farm income (expressed as player payments) net of non- compliance penalties. The economic and environmental effectiveness and durability of a formal market institution existing with the set of informal rules is analysed and evaluated."
Description and Evaluation of the Wreckfish (Polyprion Americanus) Fishery under Individual Transferable Quotas
(1994) Gauvin, John R.; Ward, John R.; Burgess, Edward E.
"The individual transferahle quota (ITQ) system for wreckfish (Polyprion americanus) in the South Atlantic will be an important test of the practical merits of individual quota management for finfish fisheries in the United States. This paper describes the wreckfish ITQ program in detail and discusses difficulties encountered in its development. Beyond providing information on the practical constraints of setting up ITQs to managers contemplating ITQs for other fisheries, another goal is to evaluate the degree to which the wreckfish ITQ program is accomplishing its resource conservation, economic, and conflict reduction objectives. Analysis of data and experiences over the one and one-half year period during which the wreckfish ITQ has been in place are provided. Linked to the discussion of accomplishing objectives is an evaluation of the degree that consolidation has taken place and the tradeoff between efficiency goals and concerns over monopoly power."
An Empirical Comparison of Behavioural Responses from Field and Laboratory Trails to Institutions to Manage Water as a Common Pool Resource
(2006) Ward, John R.; Tisdell, John G.; Straton, Anna; Capon, Tim
"There has been extensive debate in the experimental economics literature as to the validity of extending the results of student experiments to more complex real world settings, characterised by the economic behaviour of diverse participants. This paper uses an experimental design that formally compares the behavioural responses of irrigator and student participants to different institutions and instruments to manage water as a common pool resource. The irrigator subject pool was drawn from land holders in the Daly River, Katherine and Darwin Catchments, Northern Territory Australia. The students were randomly selected from a pool of undergraduates at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. The design combines the use of an environmental levy with community involvement in the formation of group agreements and strategies to explore the impact of information and communication on water use in a complex heterogeneous environment. Participants in the experiments acted as farmers faced with monthly water demands, uncertain rainfall, possible crop loss and the possibility of trading in water entitlements. The treatments included (a) no information on environmental consequences of extraction, (b) the provision of monthly aggregate environmental information, (c) the provision of monthly aggregate extraction information and a forum for discussion, and (d) the public provision of individual extraction information and a forum for discussion giving rise to potential verbal peer sanctions. To account for the impact of trade the treatments were blocked into two market types: no trade and a closed call clearance market. The simulated environmental flows provide equal public benefits to all experimental participants. The cost to the community of altering the natural flow regime to meet extractive demand was socialised through the imposition of an environmental levy equally imposed on all players. The field and laboratory results are compared."
Evidence Based Farmer Decision Models to Assess the Potential for Multiple Benefit Carbon Trading
(2008) Ward, John R.; Bryan, B.A.; Crossman, N.D.; King, D.
"Planning efforts in the SA Murray Darling Basin (SAMDB) have focused on the revegetation of degraded, privately held agricultural land, using locally native species, to meet prescribed resource condition targets of increased biodiversity, carbon sequestration, salinity and wind erosion reductions. Revegetation costs are incurred by the individual, whilst benefits accrue primarily off farm and are shared by the wider public. The multiple benefits of revegetation constitute a common pool resource, characterised by costly exclusion and subtractive consumption. Current fixed or shared payment schemes to compensate individual costs have yielded relatively minor contributions to resource condition targets. "As an alternative, market based approaches are increasingly endorsed as a class of policy instrument to motivate land management actions that are economically rewarding, stimulate persistent innovation and make substantial contributions to policy objectives. Previous research indicates the hypothetical removal of extant institutional constraints, prohibiting access to an international CO2e market, as the most cost effective and feasible instrument to promote large scale revegetation efforts. A priori evaluations of market based policy initiatives are often founded on normative behavioural parameterizations of profit maximization and optimal responses to available information. Failure to account for heterogeneous attitudes and motivations and variable willingness and capacity to participate, manifest as levels of revegetation, may result in reduced instrument performance with an attendant social cost. We paper describe an evidence based calibration of a conceptual simulation of heterogeneous dryland farmer attitudes into landscape scale natural resource management (NRM) planning. Spatially referenced attitude and behavioural profiles at the farm scale were characterized using a combination of spatial correlation, principle components and cluster analysis of survey responses of 593 dryland farmers (N=1084). We identified four significant farmer attitude segments. Regression models and structural equation modelling were unable to reliably establish the influence of attitudes, and as corollary, policy incentives, on revegetation behaviour. As an alternate method, we designed controlled economic field experiments, simulating the biophysical, economic and policy decision environment facing SAMDB dryland land mangers to elicit the magnitude and timing of revegetation of actual landholders subject to controlled framing of visual cues of near neighbour and catchment wide farm actions. Experimental results enabled the estimation of a spatial autocorrelation function of land management actions with near neighbour decision making when that information is made available. "The combined results improved the enumeration of the relationship between statistical attitude and behavioural classes, expressed as farm scale land management actions. We describe a spatially explicit multi-attribute model of farmer utility functions within a dynamic simulation environment. Levels of agent innovation, adoption rates, response to public disclosure of agent actions, near neighbour effect and revegetation efforts were evidence based according to the survey and experimental results. Fifty year landscape futures were simulated by modelling farmer responses to changes in six NRM policies. "These policy perturbations influence attitudes, and in turn revegetation actions, which determine farm economic viability and the magnitude of aggregate contributions to regional natural resource policy targets. Policy models reliant on a single instrument did not optimise for all multiple benefits. We conclude that a portfolio approach combining both market and non-market instruments is the preferred strategy. Modelled combinations maximised individual benefits, multiple common pool resource targets and an attendant global contribution to carbon sequestration. The results provide an evidence based ex ante assessment of the biophysical, economic and social impacts of market based policy initiatives to encourage carbon trading at dryland farm and catchment scale in the SAMDB."
Institutional Analysis in Outback Australia
(2008) Leitch, Anne; Lynam, Timothy; Larson, Silva; Straton, Anna; Maru, Y.; Stone-Jovicich, Samantha; Heckbert, Scott; LaFlamme, Michael; Ward, John R.; Marshall, Nadine A.; Herr, Andrew; Vella, Karen; Nursey-Bray, M.
"The Australian outback is a unique ecological and social landscape. The people who live here cope with harsh and variable environmental conditions, particularly in terms of rainfall and the availability of surface water. The human population density is very low and the dominant land use is grazing, while other land uses include agriculture, mining, tourism, defence, and nature conservation. These harsh environmental factors frame all human activities in these regions and, in turn, these activities can have adverse environmental impacts, shaping what is possible in the future. To manage these impacts, all tiers of government impose institutional constraints, such as legislation and regulations that seek to influence the activities and aspirations of individuals and communities. The research project Outback Institutions used the Institutional Analysis and Development framework to assess institutional arrangements in this context through four case studies in outback regions of Queensland and the Northern Territory. The IAD framework was found to provide an effective means for structuring an institutional analysis. However, the room left for interpretation made comparison between case studies challenging, especially when comparing different stakeholder driven processes and analysing cross-scales feedbacks and institutional dynamics. The case study analyses found that the lack of real influence and power of community members in the decision making process and the lack of rules to stipulate and govern the monitoring of water use were two of several aspects of the institutional arrangements that did not enable the alignment of formal government legislation and regulations with individual and community actions and aspirations."