Developing appropriate incentives for improving water quality in the Burdekin River catchment

Achieving a reduction in the discharge of diffuse agricultural water pollutants from the Burdekin River catchment to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon has become a high priority for government. Such an achievement requires an increase in the voluntary adoption of best management practices by landholders. Past policies and programs to encourage adoption do not appear to have achieved significant improvements in water quality. It is thought that a more tailored suite of incentive measures would be more effective in encouraging landholders to adopt management practices. This paper presents preliminary results from a catchment wide landholder survey on how landholders perceived the effectiveness of different incentive instruments. Results indicated that there was a suite of preferred incentives from different categories including financial incentives (specifically income tax incentives); education and extension programs (specifically on-farm demonstration sites) and increased security of property rights. Government regulation was the least preferred option. These results suggest a ‘tool-box’ of incentives will be required to encourage the range of landholders and their different situations to adopt management practices. Regional NRM bodies such as the Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM will have many roles to play in the design, support and delivery of such incentive mechanisms.