The role of grazier motivations and risk attitudes in the adoption of grazing best management practices

The onus on landholders in relation to environmental performance is ever increasing. One toolfor achieving environmental improvements is the design and promotion of region-specific‘best management practices’ (BMPs). These are conservation practices aimed at reducingdiffuse source pollution from agricultural lands and thus improving end-of-catchment waterquality. A suite of grazing BMPs were developed for the Burdekin Dry Tropics region in aconsultative fashion but without explicit consideration of knowledge of adoption processes. Itis known from the literature that farmers’ goals and risk perceptions in particular influenceadoption decisions. This paper utilises the data from an earlier grazier survey to explore towhat extent grazier motivations and risk perceptions influence the adoption of BMPs. Theresults demonstrate clear correlations between both motivations and risk attitudes, and theadoption of recommended BMPs, with specific preferences for different BMPs. We concludethat a sound understanding of landholders’ motivations and risk attitudes is required—in aregional, industry and environmental context—to tailor programmes aimed at improvingregional environmental performance.