Applying economics to wicked problems: Protecting the Great Barrier Reef

Date

Time

13:00

Venue

Online

Speakers

John Rolfe is a resource economist who is Professor of Regional Economic Development in the School of Business and Law at the CQ University at Rockhampton, and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Professor Rolfe has a number of research interests, but specialises in non-market valuation, regional development, environmental, resource and agricultural economic issues, agricultural adoption, and economic impact assessment in regional areas.  In 2019 he was appointed by the Queensland and Australian Governments to the Great Barrier Reef Independent Science Panel.

Description

John Rolfe gave the 2020 AARES Presidential Address on this topic to the AARES Annual Conference in February. He reprises this important talk for us in our webinar. His theme was that simple policies and unrelated single instruments are ineffective when it comes to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). There needs to be greater recognition that solutions for wicked problems involve packages of approaches over multiple dimensions. It’s time to bring in the economists and social scientists alongside the marine scientists and environmentalists to better target the actions needed to reduce pressures and threats. While current work on costing and valuation are providing better insights into where funds can be allocated, more needs to be done to reveal the tradeoffs and advantages of different choices. Many of the major challenges facing the GBR are economic, including slow adoption rates of better agricultural practices, improving cost-effectiveness, setting targets, selecting policy mechanisms and prioritising where funding and effort should be allocated. It appears that to maintain community trust it is important to show that funds are being used efficiently, are targeted carefully, and maintain the tourism and recreation sectors alongside the environment. To achieve this there needs to be better alignment between science modelling and economic assessment, and greater recognition of the multiple interrelationships and feedback loops typical in wicked problems, as faced by what is arguably Australia’s most iconic asset.