Financial incentives are a widely accepted policy tool for use by Natural Resource Management organisations. Government funding is vital in order for new technological advances and ecological understanding to be disseminated and implemented by landholders and for large scale ecological benefits to be realised. However, this funding can quite easily miss its mark and have little impact on long-term landholder behaviour change if invested in a poorly designed program or an inappropriate practice. From our experience in natural resource management we understood that this was a recurring issue for local management authorities and that a review on this area would be of great practical assistance.
We undertook a review of the evidence in this area, with the review’s primary question being “What factors influence the effectiveness of financial incentives on long-term natural resource management practice change?”
Our review was published in ANZSOG’s peer reviewed journal ‘Evidence Base’. The journal focuses on reviews of the evidence informing decision-making in specific policy areas. Designed for public sector decision-makers, the journal is a ‘broker’ between the public sector, policy specialists and researchers.
A copy of our published article can be found here. It influenced a number of Catchment Management Authorities in how they delivered their financial incentive programs.