THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF PROTECTED AREAS ON THE GREATER SHOALHAVEN REGION FINAL REPORT NOVEMBER 2006 ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION ECONOMICS SECTION NSW DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF PROTECTED AREAS ON THE GREATER SHOALHAVEN REGION SUMMARY The main focus of this study is the impact of protected areas on the local economy and community of the Greater Shoalhaven Region. This impact is assessed in terms of the contribution which park management and park visitor expenditure make to regional economic activity. For the purposes of this study, the Greater Shoalhaven region has been defined as the area comprising the Shellharbour, Kiama and Shoalhaven LGAs, plus the Commonwealth Jervis Bay Territory and the NSW Jervis Bay Marine Park. The objectives of this study were: • to develop a socio-economic profile of the region; • to identify the current socio-economic impact of the DEC reserve system and other protected areas (PAs) on the regional economy of the Greater Shoalhaven region using trend analysis and input-output analysis; and • to identify the broad implications of recent and current socio-demographic and economic trends in the region for PA planning and management for the next 5-10 years. The principal activities carried out for the study were: • review of the demographic and employment characteristics of the region; • development of an input-output table for the region to be used to describe the economic structure of the regional economy; • analyses of the economic characteristics of the region including location quotients, shift-share analysis and other measures that indicate the level of diversity in economic structure and the level of access to local services by households and businesses; and • use of a regional input-output table to calculate the direct and flow-on impacts on the regional economy associated with park management expenditure, and local expenditure made by park visitors. These main findings of the study are as follows. Regional Profile The Greater Shoalhaven region as defined in this study is located within commuting distance of Wollongong and Sydney and 25 percent of the employed residents work outside of this region. The resident population of The Shoalhaven has been growing rapidly over the past 20 years and is close to the age profile of NSW. However, the population projections indicate that it will be subject to rapid ageing with immigrant retirees and rising dependency ratios. The economy of the Greater Shoalhaven region represents 1.4 percent of the NSW economy and has a significant manufacturing industry in food manufacturing, paper products and a range of smaller operations that are produced mainly for export. Primary production is small. The economy is dominated by the provision of services to the residents including those working outside the region. Some of the specialised Page 2 personal services are limited but presumably are readily accessed in nearby Wollongong. Business services tend to be relatively weak. The Greater Shoalhaven region has been a high growth area and that is expected to continue and to be based on the quality residential characteristics of the region. The average income of households in the region is close to the NSW average and is less dependent on welfare and retirement incomes. The economic impact of PAs Analysis of the current socio-economic impact of the DEC reserve system and other protected areas (PAs) on the regional economy of the Greater Shoalhaven region using input-output analysis, produced the findings below. Summary of PA Economic Impacts on the Greater Shoalhaven region Total Impact Region PA Visitor Share of IMPACTS Total Total Management Expenditure Region % GROSS OUTPUT ($'000) 25,405 407,040 432,445 7.92 5,462,483 VALUE-ADDED ($'000) 13,005 152,922 165,927 5.15 3,222,092 HOUSEHOLD INCOME ($'000) 8,064 67,816 75,880 6.30 1,204,492 EMPLOYMENT (no.) 208 3,219 3,427 7.73 44,346 The following points are notable: • Regional economic impacts associated with the expenditure of visitors are much greater then the impacts of park management expenditure. • On average, park management expenditure and visitor expenditure contribute over 6 percent of the gross regional output, household income and employment. • Park management expenditure and visitor expenditure contribute around 5 percent of the gross regional product (value-added activity). The Future The attractiveness of the South Coast to residents, retirees and visitors will continue to be an important driver of economic growth in the Greater Shoalhaven region. This attractiveness will be an important driver of growth in the region, resulting in continuing growth in those service sectors relating to households and visitors. Growth in these services will accompany growth across a wide range of industries related to the other economic activity within the region. Services associated with PAs will be part of the attraction of the Greater Shoalhaven region and will continue to grow. However, the proportion of the regional economy that these services represent is expected to remain constant into the immediate future. Growth in services associated with PAs is dependent upon a number of factors, including a higher number of local residents and visitors, and the creative development of new ways of using the PAs to provide services to these users. Page 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the report were prepared by the Centre for Agricultural and Regional Economics (CARE) in Armidale NSW. Park management expenditure data and some park visitation data used in Section 4 were provided by staff from DEC (Parks and Wildlife Division) South Coast regional office. Staff from Booderee National Park, Jervis Bay Commonwealth Territory, provided data for Section 4 and financial assistance for the research, and their support and is gratefully acknowledged. Page 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW: SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF PROTECTED AREAS ..........................................................................................7 1.1 Introduction 7 1.2 Overview 7 1.3 Benefits To individuals and businesses 8 1.4 Benefits to communities 10 2 THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AND PROTECTED AREAS IN THE GREATER SHOALHAVEN REGION .................................................................13 2.1 Background to the Greater Shoalhaven region 13 2.2 Protected Areas in the Greater Shoalhaven region 14 3 SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF THE GREATER SHOALHAVEN REGION.19 3.1 Analytical Techniques used in developing profiles 19 3.2 The Greater Shoalhaven region 24 3.3 Demographic Trends 24 3.4 The Greater Shoalhaven regional Input-output Table 27 3.5 Trends in the Shoalhaven Economy 32 3.6 Shift Share Analysis 40 3.7 Summary 43 4 REGIONAL ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF PROTECTED AREAS ........................44 4.1 Introduction 44 4.2 Impacts of Protected Area Management expenditure in the Greater Shoalhaven region 44 4.3 Impacts of Park related visitor expenditure in the Greater Shoalhaven region 47 Page 5 5 CONCLUSION....................................................................................................50 5.1 Implications of socio-demographic and economic trends for conservation in the Greater Shoalhaven region 50 6 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................51 7 APPENDIX 1: DATA SOURCES AND ASSUMPTIONS USED IN CALCULATING THE IMPACTS OF PROTECTED AREAS ..............................53 7.1 Park Management Expenditure 53 7.2 Tourism and Visitation 57 7.3 Greater Shoalhaven Visitor expenditure - data sources and assumptions 59 8 APPENDIX 2 INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION USED IN REGIONAL INPUT- OUTPUT TABLES..............................................................................................65 9 APPENDIX 3 SUMMARY INPUT-OUTPUT TABLES........................................68 10 APPENDIX 4 STUDIES OF THE ECONOMIC IMPACT / VALUE OF PROTECTED AREAS ON THE NSW SOUTH COAST .....................................70 Page 6 1 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW: SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF PROTECTED AREAS 1.1 Introduction Protected areas (PAs) in NSW provide a wide range of benefits to individuals, private firms, and the community in general, including benefits from the direct and flow-on effects of expenditure made by the park management agency and by park visitors in the region, benefits from the biophysical functions provided by ecosystems and processes protected within PAs, and benefits in terms of improved quality of life for members of communities. These benefits are described in this section (Section 1) of the report. The main focus of this study is the impact of PAs on the local economy and community of the Greater Shoalhaven region. This impact is assessed in terms of the contribution which park management and park visitor expenditure make to regional economic activity. For the purposes of this study, the Greater Shoalhaven region (the region) has been defined as the area comprising the Shellharbour, Kiama and Shoalhaven LGAs, plus the Commonwealth Jervis Bay Territory and the NSW Jervis Bay Marine Park. Section 2 of the report provides background information on the natural environment and protected areas within region. The socio-economic characteristics of the region is then discussed in Section 3. The report assesses the contribution of PAs to the economy of the region in Section 4. The final part of the study considers the broad social and economic trends within the region and suggest possible implications of these trends for PA planning and management