Regulating land use in the catchment of the Great Barrier Reef

Evan Hamman, Jon Brodie, Rachel Eberhard, Felicity Deane and Michael Bode

Land Use Policy, 2022, vol. 115, issue C

Abstract: The quality of water entering the coastal waters of the Great Barrier Reef continues to be of urgent concern for policy makers. Beef grazing and sugarcane cultivation pose special threats at the catchment scale, and past policy approaches and millions in investment have largely proved insufficient to reverse the associated decline in water quality. In this paper, we examine the role of regulation - as one tool of governance - in addressing threats to water quality to the Great Barrier Reef. By adopting a focused study of sugarcane and cattle grazing, and by drawing upon recent developments in regulatory theory, we evaluate the approaches adopted by government, including the recent re-introduction of legislative measures targeting nutrient and sediment loads. Scientific and government consensus appears to be that regulation should form part of a functioning environmental governance system, but it must also be supported by other measures such as economic incentives, education and outreach. Where regulation of land use is required, best practice suggests it should be risk-based, responsive, and cognisant of the regulated industry’s attitudinal settings.

Keywords: Great Barrier Reef; Regulation; Diffuse pollution; Runoff; Nutrients; Water quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026483772200028X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:115:y:2022:i:c:s026483772200028x

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106001

Access Statistics for this article

Land Use Policy is currently edited by Jaap Zevenbergen

More articles in Land Use Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joice Jiang ().