Australian Development Gateway

The Australian Development Gateway (ADG) strives to support members of the development community in their efforts to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region. The site has been created with participation from members of government, private, academia and non-government organisations. User feedback mechanisms have been incorporated to guide future directions of the site. The site is optimised for low bandwidth access to enable the widest participation throughout the Asia Pacific region.

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Land & resource management

Encouraging revegetation in Australia with a groundwater recharge credit scheme (pdf 340kb)

This paper describes a comprehensive method to design, test and then implement a Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) framework to combat the environmental consequences of extensive native vegetation clearance in Australia.

The objective of the trial is to test the cost effectiveness of an incentive-based recharge credit trade scheme. This scheme is designed to engage landholders in establishing and managing deep rooted pasture and woody perennials to reduce these adverse salinity impacts.

The scheme, based on a voluntary 'cap and trade' approach, allows farmers to meet recharge obligations by land management actions or by trading credits.

A schedule has been developed relating land management practices and recharge credits. The audited performance based payment system, has provided increased motivation to manage for environmental outcomes compared to the previous policy.

 

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