Concepts for private sector funded conservation using tax-effective instruments

Abstract

This study is intended to outline a conceptual model for the use of taxation to markedly improve the flow of funds to conservation. Its particular focus is the use of private funds to ensure conservation of high value environments on private farms, through the marriage of taxation arrangements with eco-service markets and regional management of conservation programs by farmer led conservation organisations. Whilst this study is stand alone in its content, it is part of a set of studies that have been carried out over a number of years. All are concerned with the underlying problem of pursuing sustainability in ways that are efficient, effective and fair. Together they make the case for a reform of Australia’s natural resource management strategies in the following ways: 1. Redesign of the regulatory framework to remove the excessive number of laws and to make the principles of the law more coherent and accessible 2. Regulatory reform to assist in reducing the many administrative inefficiencies and coordination problems that go with regulatory complexity 3. Natural resource management strategy re-structured to address total systems rather than 'spots' within these systems. Use multi-instrument approaches combining regulation with market incentives, voluntarism and social change strategies 4. The processes for the creation of regulation should be more tightly disciplined to improve transparency, and to place greater emphasis on efficient design This report adds to these studies a consideration of the fiscal aspects of conservation, and proposes a fifth element in this total program: a move to private market financing of conservation on private lands.