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22/09/10

Rural sustainability, laws and institutions

My message in a bottle

Professor Paul Martin

Australian Centre for Agriculture and LawUniversity of New England

22/09/10 Our research

• Concepts for private sector funded conservation using tax-effective instruments 2008

• Developing a Good Regulatory Practice Model for Environmental Regulations Impacting on Farmers 2007

• Sustainability Strategies (Federation Press) 2006

• Property rights and property responsibility 2002

• Fifty Million Australians: Can this be sustainable? 2002

• A Cartography for Natural Resource Law: Finding new paths to effective resource regulation 2000 and 2002 (Using Environmental Law for Effective Regulation).

Content1. Specifying the

law/institutions transaction cost problem and proposed reformed architectures

2. Proposed regulatory processes to improve rural law effectiveness and economy

3. Transactional methods for creation of systems-focused integrated NRM strategies

4. Highlight the fiscal gap for sustainability, its effects and some tax and low-cost transactional approaches to investment

Purpose: a stronger in

stitutional architecture

22/09/10

Some consequent developments

• AgLaw Centre at UNE, ~ 45 Masters and Phd students, 5 staff, research focus on sustainability law and institutions.

• ~ 20 reform studies e.g. weeds and biofuel risk, ‘next generation’ governance, co-regulation, water institutions, policy risk, duty of care.

• Research collaboration in USA, Canada, Asia, and Europe.

• Increasing policy enquiries.

• Tangible impacts.

Our research

Australia: suffering instrumental myopia? The Goal: to shift social systems, to sustain ecological systems

Many Problems: failures, complexities, frustrations and cost.

Causes: fragmented inefficient institutions.

Effects: results are often insufficient, frequently costly and often unfair

Instrument type Behavioural mechanism?

Who bears the cost?

Markets Market entrepreneurship• arbitrage or• improve resource access or value.

Consumer of resource bears the cost of consumption

Private Regulation

Avoidance of third party harm or ‘neighbourly’ negotiation of interests

Offending user bears costs of avoidance of harm. Affected neighbour may bear costs. Both bear negotiated costs.

Public Regulation

Compliance, focused on least cost to avoid the risk.

Regulator bears the costs of enforcement. User bears the cost of compliance.

Incentives Administrative entrepreneurship to- Win grants- Satisfy requirements

The granting agency plus grant applicants.

Education Civic responsibility Volunteers

The problems

22/09/10

Considering the emperor's wardrobe

• The institutional fabric is torn and insufficient

• Instruments fail, and we are surprised

• Farmers feel victimised, but landscape values are declining.

• We still lack

– A viable fiscal model for sustaining rural landscapes

– Systemic behaviour changing strategies addressing integrated ecosystems

– NRM strategies that embrace social justice

– Robust process for design and review

The problems

22/09/10

Quo vadis?

• The ‘sustainable population’ debate should trigger serious reconsideration of the institutional fundamentals

• The ‘feed in’

– Farmer rights, social license and identification of regulatory and market cost and limitations

– Significant sustainable resource use conflicts

– The Henry review, and fiscal relationships

The future

22/09/10

What will sustainability require? Significant innovation in productive use of nature. Why?

Significant innovation in (effective) protection. Why?

Minimise the cost of/to government. Why?

Accessible rules and methods. Why?

Innovation and investment in social equity. Why?

Some “Hows”

1. Streamline regulation using the Corporations Code/ Trade Practices model architecture

2. Create a unified framework for creating, trading and supervising environmental property rights

3. Create a private sector sustainability funding model, with

• Lower transaction costs stucture; and

• A conservation supportive taxation ‘playing field’

4. Incorporate social justice, risk and implementation assessment into the design of the instruments we use.

22/09/10

.. and the wisdom of many.

Poh Lin

Tan

Donna Craig

Tony

Gleeson

Andrew Campbell

Corey Watts

Neil Gunningham

Michael Lester

Jason Alexandra

Mike

Young

Richard Price

Ken Moore

Alice Roughley

Jim Donaldson

Stuart Pearson Nick Schofield

Robyn Bartel

Ian Hannam

Chris Stone

Craig CarterDavid Eyre

Miriam Verbeek

Jack Sinden

Murray Raff

Gary Stoneham

Liverpool Plains Land Management CommitteeRice Environmental Champions

Paul Toni

Marty SammonTony

Dormer

CRC Irrigation Futures

WWF AustraliaNSW Farmers

Australian Farm Institute

Mick Keogh

Alex Arbuthnot

Thanks