Natural Resource Management Investment Choices by Catchment Management Authorities in NSW: Some Modelling and Economic Issues

The central question addressed in this paper is how policy makers and environmental/natural resource management decision makers in NSW make the most appropriate use of the large amounts of public funds available for environmental improvement across catchments. These environmental goods include salinity, biodiversity, soils, and riverine ecosystem condition. A case is made for such decision makers to maximise the environmental outcomes to society from the investment of public funds and benefit-cost analysis is proposed as the appropriate framework. A substantial information requirement is implied to predict or measure benefits – in both predicting the quantity of environmental gain from alternative proposals and in the derivation of associated environmental values. The provision of information through (1) bio-physical modelling, and (2) environmental economic valuation methods, is discussed and some issue for Catchment Management Authorities in NSW are canvassed