Funded by Land and Water Australia, CSIRO and JCU i ii An Assessment of the Social and Economic Values of Australia’s Tropical Rivers Scoping report prepared for Land and Water Australia’s Tropical Rivers Program September 2006 Natalie Stoeckl#, Owen Stanley#, Sue Jackson*, Anna Straton* and Vicki Brown# Funded by Land and Water Australia, CSIRO and JCU # School of Business, James Cook University * CSIRO iii Acknowledgements Special thanks go to Romy Greiner and Dan Walker for their contributions in setting up the framework for this study. We would also like to thank the Northern Australia Irrigation Futures team (Patrick Hegarty, Bart Kellett, Cuan Petheram and Keith Bristow) for allowing us to use much of their work on the laws, programs and institutions affecting water use in the TR region. Many thanks also to Danielle Brooker, Melanie Giannikos and Karina Lynch for their research assistance, and to Alexander Herr and Wolfgang Stoeckl for their GIS contributions. We would also like to acknowledge the very special contribution made by the many people who assisted with the organisation and promotion of the community forums: Barbara McKaige (CSE), Emma Woodward (CSE), Patrick O’Leary (CSE), Anna Mardling and Charles Prouse (Kimberley Land Council), Madonna McKay (Katherine region NRM facilitator), Clare Taylor (Rivercare). Finally – and perhaps most importantly – we thank all of those who participated in community forums. iv Executive summary Background Covering an area of more than 1.3 million km2, the tropical rivers (TR) region includes 55 river basins and extends across all catchments from the west side of Cape York to the Kimberley, through Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It includes some of Australia’s largest river systems, which are – by area size – the Flinders, Roper, Victoria and Fitzroy Rivers and – by volume – the Nicholson and Mitchell Rivers (NGIS Australia, 2004). In 2004 the Board of Land & Water Australia (LWA) identified Australia’s TR region as a priority area for major investment over the subsequent five years, and there has been explicit recognition of the important contribution that social sciences make to natural resource management. This report presents results from a scoping study – the primary objective of which was to conduct a ‘preliminary’ assessment of social and economic values associated with Australia’s tropical rivers. This research project complements existing (NGIS Australia, 2004) and ongoing research on the tropical rivers region, with the following specific objectives: 1. To develop an integrated social and economic profile of the tropical rivers region, focussing on the collation and reporting of data relevant to rivers and river management; 2. To identify important social and economic values and issues relevant to rivers; 3. To explain significant processes and pressure points that will impact on future management of tropical rivers, including conflicting stakeholder aspirations; 4. To scope future research needs and priorities based on the identification of key social and economic management questions, and; 5. To recommend questions and approaches for further R&D that will generate an understanding of the social and economic processes and pressure points that will impact on the health of rivers, floodplains, wetlands and estuaries in the study area. Methodology A key assumption underlying this project’s methodological approach is that the TR region is a large, complex system consisting of interlinked sub-systems (social, cultural, institutional, economic, biophysical, hydrological and ecological). Recognising that no single scoping study could investigate detailed aspects of such a complex system across a region as large as this, this investigation made several methodological simplifications as outlined below: a) In this report, the term ’values‘ is not used to refer to a market-based price. Neither is it used to refer to a numerical or financial estimate of the magnitude of value. Rather this report defines “social and economic values” as those that contribute to human wellbeing – either directly (as when an individual uses water to drink, or when an individual gains benefit from living near their favourite river), or indirectly (as when businesses within the tourism industry are profitable because many visitors travel to the region to swim in local waterholes). Thus, this report uses both primary and secondary data to identify key social and economic values associated with Australia’s tropical rivers, but it does not attempt to measure, compare or prioritise them (using dollars, ‘utils’, kilojoules or other). b) Data relevant to the entire TR region was collected from a multitude of existing sources. Information was also collected during three separate focus group discussions – one each in WA, NT and QLD. The rich qualitative focus group v information was then used to supplement, compare, and contrast the ‘coarser’ desk- top information, the two approaches thus serving to enrich and ‘ground-truth’ each other. Much of the research was conducted in an iterative process – where data/information gleaned in one part of the investigation, helped re-focus earlier thoughts and refine other avenues of investigation. However, final deliberations are – of necessity – presented sequentially. To that end, chapters 2 through to 6 of the report summarise key issues relevant to objectives 1, 2 and 3, whilst chapter 7 uses information from these preceding sections to meet objectives 4 and 5 – that is, to highlight future research needs and priorities, and to recommend questions and approaches for this R&D. Findings The study found that there are significant differences between many of the river systems in the TR region and others in southeast Australia. First, it is clear that most rivers in this region have episodic flows, whereas many in the southeast are perennial. Second, groundwater is an important substitute to surface water – for human and animal consumption, and for other purposes. Third, there are complex, yet poorly understood, relationships between ground and surface waters. (Chapter 2) This highlights the fact that river management systems in the TR region must be able to cope with scarcity and with extremely variable water supplies – both geographic and temporal – and must simultaneously deal with both surface and ground water issues. The biophysical characteristics of the region also compel those charged with managing water resources in the TR region to be particularly vigilant in protecting ‘basic’ levels of both water quantity and water quality – not just on the surface but also underground. This is because scarcity has the potential to intensify the external effects that one person’s activities has upon others (as when, for example, the only water hole for hundreds of kilometres runs dry). The social and economic values of Australia’s tropical rivers have changed through time (Chapter 3). So too have the theories of ‘value’, the frameworks for thinking about ‘values’ and the terminologies of managers and academics. These changes have, in turn, influenced the way in which values are conceptualised, identified, assessed, measured and – ultimately – used to make decisions about how to allocate resources to different and often competing uses. Managers and researchers, thus need to be aware of the fact that different approaches to thinking about ‘values’ may lead to quite different allocative outcomes. There is a need to develop and refine environmental management processes to allow for consideration of multiple values and diverse sources of knowledge. Nowadays, it is clear that there are many different social and economic values associated with Australia’s tropical rivers (chapter 4). Specifically, there is ample evidence to suggest that the TR region contains many rivers, estuaries and wetlands that have significant environmental, aesthetic, bequest, and option values associated with them. Not only are these areas of ‘value’ by, and of themselves, but they also provide many important ecological services which are used (and thus valued – if only indirectly) in other human activities. The ‘values’ associated with Australia’s tropical rivers, therefore include, but are not limited to: • Environmental, aesthetic, bequest, and option values that exist even when the rivers are not being ‘used’ – or used up. • The value of water as a basic requirement of life. • The direct – and indirect – use-values associated with rivers that accrue to the large number of Indigenous people for cultural purposes, for fishing, for recreation, for health and for a multitude of other reasons. vi • The aesthetic, ‘cooling’ and recreational values (including fishing) of rivers provided to residents and to regional, national and international visitors. • The ‘value’ of rivers for the eco-system services they provide to the fishing, agriculture and tourism industries. • The ‘value’ of water extracted from rivers for use in industries, particularly agriculture and mining. Many of the basins in the TR region have fewer than 500 persons, and very little industry (Chapter 4). In these basins, ‘values’ are almost exclusively non-market in nature, which poses some interesting management challenges in a policy environment that places much emphasis on ‘market’ solutions (since these systems typically work best when there are many participants). Despite the relatively large number of basins with few people, there is ample evidence to suggest that most rivers within the TR region are likely