Native grassland: at what cost?

The on-farm conservation and management of native grasslands, especially those that are botanically diverse or support threatened species is now an important policy issue for State and Commonwealth Governments. Economics is important to achieving public policy goals because farms ore primarily about providing a livelihood and an economic return. The results of interviews with landholders from across south-eastern Australia on farms with native grassland are reported in the paper. These exploratory findings raise many interesting points to be considered in more definitive research and in policy deve1opment. They cover the reasons native gmsslunds can Mill be found on these farms~ the place of native grass1ands in farming systems and factors likely to nffect the future of the native grasslands. Appropriate types of incentives and other policy mechanisms which may be requnred to nchieve desired conservation outcomes ate also discussed. Some suggestions are made For relevant economic resmtrch.