Twenty video interviews were conducted during the highly successful National MBI Forum in Brisbane in late September.

The interviewees include people from all over Australia, working in all areas of natural resource management (NRM), from economists and scientists, to regional group project managers. These short video interviews provide an insight into a range of people's MBI experiences.

Each of the interviewees share their experience with MBIs and provide some useful ideas on how to use MBIs effectively. The interviews are also a great way to find a useful contact person or get an introduction to MBIs and what they are used for in NRM.

The 20 interviewees are: Nerilee Boshammer, Kathleen Broderick, Anthea Coggan, Mel Feldmuller, Mike Gooey, Greg Hales, Darryl Harvey, Donna Hazell, Claire Heath, Brett Janissen, Nicola Landsdell, Honorlea Massarella, Margie Milgate, Patrick O’Connor, Hugh Possingham, Rohan Sadler, Jennifer Stace, Vikki Uhlmann, Jill Windle, and Charlie Zammit.

Visit the Designer Carrots website to view the interviews.

The national Market Based Instruments (MBI) Capacity Building Program (Designer Carrots) has ended. Designer Carrots products are still available on the Designer Carrots website and they include the following.

Website
A third stage of the Designer Carrots website is now developed. This upgrade makes finding assistance on MBIs easier and helps people to set up their profiles on the site's little orange book (the yellow pages of MBIs).

Stage two brought new online tools to the website, including online versions of the MBI decision support tool, metric tool and training modules.

This website provides an ongoing portal for MBI information. It contains all the Designer Carrots fact sheets, case studies and general information on MBIs.

The website will be hosted for at least three years, so it will remain an active site of MBI knowledge and interactive sharing long after the Designer Carrots program ends.

Case studies and fact sheets
Eight fact sheets and three case studies are available from the Designer Carrots website. They have been tailored to various levels of MBI awareness.

Designer Carrots Seed Money
There are several new case studies on the website in the Designer Carrots Seed Money section on these projects which were designed to provide the resources to broker knowledge and build the capacity of regional natural resource management (NRM) bodies to implement and design MBIs. There were 10 successful applicants.

Decision support tool and metric framework
These tools help to create a knowledge platform for the consistent national application of MBIs. The decision support tool will provide guidance to assist in determining the feasibility of applying different MBIs. The metric essentials online tool is a framework which communicates current knowledge and recent experience in metric design and implementation; it is complemented by a literature survey that gives readers much more in-depth insights into the design of metrics, as well as sources of further reading.

Little Orange Book
This practitioners’ network has been developed as a community of MBI practice through face-to-face contact (workshops) and virtual networking, and uses the website to further facilitate interaction. Network members now have access to the Designer Carrots website and Little Orange Book, creating an ongoing resource.  It’s easy to become a member: click on the registration link, and the system administrator will sign you up. Membership gives you access to more resources than the open site allows.

Training package and regional workshops
The eighteen two-day regional workshops have been completed. Held nationwide they have helped participants gain a better understanding of the role of MBIs among the NRM policy options, the range of MBIs, and their appropriate application to solve NRM problems. These workshops for regional NRM groups and for government agencies provided training, practical information, and a forum for discussion on the development, administration, communication, monitoring and evaluation of key MBI approaches.

National MBI Forum
Following on from the regional workshops, the Designer Carrots program hosted a very successful National MBI Forum on 30 September and 1 October in Brisbane. Over 145 people attended the Forum and disucussed a way forward for MBIs in NRM in Australia.

Some of the presentations from the forum are now available on the Designer Carrots website.

Additionally, 20 video interviews of MBI practioners were done at the forum and these videos are now available on the Designer Carrots website.

Please email Carl Glen or the Coordinator Claire Heath or phone on (07) 3239 3875 if you have any questions about the MBI Capacity Building Program.

The national Market Based Instruments (MBI) Capacity Building Program (Designer Carrots) is extended until the end of September 2008. Designer Carrots products are now available and they include the following.

Website
A third stage of the Designer Carrots website is now being developed. This upgrade will make finding assistance on MBIs easier and help people to set up their profiles on the site's little orange book (the yellow pages of MBIs).

Stage two is complete, bringing new online tools to the website, including online versions of the MBI decision support tool, metric tool and training modules.

This website provides an ongoing portal for MBI information. It contains all the Designer Carrots fact sheets, case studies and general information on MBIs.

The website will be hosted for at least three years, so it will remain an active site of MBI knowledge and interactive sharing long after the Designer Carrots program ends.

Case studies and fact sheets
Eight fact sheets and three case studies are available from the Designer Carrots website. They have been tailored to various levels of MBI awareness.

Designer Carrots Seed Money
There are several new case studies on the website in the Designer Carrots Seed Money section on these projects which were designed to provide the resources to broker knowledge and build the capacity of regional natural resource management (NRM) bodies to implement and design MBIs. There were 10 successful applicants.

Decision support tool and metric framework
These tools help to create a knowledge platform for the consistent national application of MBIs. The decision support tool will provide guidance to assist in determining the feasibility of applying different MBIs. The metric essentials online tool is a framework which aims to communicate current knowledge and recent experience in metric design and implementation; it is complemented by a literature survey that gives readers much more in-depth insights into the design of metrics, as well as sources of further reading.

Little Orange Book
This practitioners’ network has been developed as a community of MBI practice through face-to-face contact (workshops) and virtual networking, and uses the website to further facilitate interaction. Network members now have access to the Designer Carrots website and Little Orange Book, creating an ongoing resource.  It’s easy to become a member: click on the registration link, and the system administrator will sign you up. Membership gives you access to more resources than the open site allows.

Training package and regional workshops
The eighteen two-day regional workshops have been completed. Held nationwide they have helped participants gain a better understanding of the role of MBIs among the NRM policy options, the range of MBIs, and their appropriate application to solve NRM problems. These workshops for regional NRM groups and for government agencies provided training, practical information, and a forum for discussion on the development, administration, communication, monitoring and evaluation of key MBI approaches.

National MBI Forum
Following the regional workshops, the Designer Carrots program is hosting a National MBI Forum on 30 September and 1 October in Brisbane. Click here to learn more and register.

Please email Carl Glen or the Coordinator Claire Heath or phone on (07) 3239 3875 if you have any questions about the MBI Capacity Building Program.

People with an interest in learning about market-based instruments (MBIs) gathered in Sydney in the third week in August to do training on MBIs, including using online tools, such as a decision support tool and metric tool.

The two training workshops were part of the 18 workshops to help regional NRM groups and government staff nationally to determine if MBIs are an appropriate tool to use for designing on-ground project delivery, and how they might apply them in their own situations.

The attendees were regional groups and government officers wanting to get involved in MBIs.

The interest in MBis in NSW was reflected by the good attendances at both the two-day workshops conducted in Sydney; there was also good attendance at a workshop held in Wagga Wagga.

The training was an introduction to MBIs as policy tools that encourage behavioural change through market signals rather than through explicit directives or through unsubtle mechanisms such as grants. The workshops covered a range of MBIs, including cap-and-trade mechanisms, offsets and conservation tenders.

Online forums have been set-up on the Designer Carrots website* for all the trainees who attended the workshops, so they can continue to stay in touch and share their MBI learnings. Some of the attendees have already added contributions to the forums and it is hoped that this will continue as people use what they have learned at the training workshops and apply it at work.

Online versions of the training modules and the other MBI capacity building products are also available on the Designer Carrots website*.

* you will need to be logged in as a member to access these areas. Links for the training and forums are located in the navigation list on the left side of the page.

According to a recent Land and Water Australia study, trust, business orientation, information-seeking behaviour and connectedness are among the best predictors of participation in a market-based instrument (MBI) or incentive program.

Designing or delivering MBIs and incentives in the following ways were found to be helpful:

• use Landcare, local catchment management authorities, regional bodies or industry groups to deliver the programs

• provide technical assistance, particularly for identifying potential management actions and ongoing technical assistance
• provide help writing applications if possible
• indicate the probability of success with past grants
• for payments, landholders generally prefer to receive a larger upfront payment with the residual paid in equal yearly payments or payment after each stage has been completed, rather than receive equal yearly payments
• for ongoing projects, contracts of 3–5 years with an optional extension are preferred to projects of fewer years in length
• for monitoring, include site visits half way through and at the end of the project rather than just at the end of the project, or sending in photos at key stages.

Those most likely to participate in MBIs and incentive programs are those with the highest socio-demographic status, which raises concern about efficiency and equity. It was found that age was negatively and education was positively related to participation.

The researchers found there was evidence that if landholders hear about a program via a direct contacts (e.g. through extension officers) they are more likely to participate. The most effective communication messages emphasise the benefits to landholders and how the program will improve the management of their property and their business.

Learn more about the Encouraging Participation in Market Based Instruments and Incentive Programs project, using this link.

Use this link to download the Encouraging Participation in Market Based Instruments and Incentive Programs final report.

The Queensland Government has moved to ensure that environmental values aren’t lost as a result of development across the state.

The Queensland Government Environmental Offsets Policy, which took effect from 1 July 2008, will assist the Government and the public to protect Queensland's environmental values.

Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation, Andrew McNamara, said the policy is a milestone for Queensland environmental protection.

“It provides an overarching framework for the transparent and consistent use of environmental offsets,” Mr McNamara said.

“The policy will help achieve ecologically sustainable development to improve our quality of life now, and preserve the unique environmental values of Queensland for the future.”

“Environmental offsets will be required from developments approved by state decision makers after all avenues have been utilised first to avoid and then to minimise the environmental impact,” Mr McNamara said.

The Environmental Offsets Policy is available on the EPA website.

South East Queensland is set to become one of Australia's hotspots for carbon sequestration following the new partnership between South East Queensland (SEQ) Catchments and Australia's leading not-for-profit carbon trading organisation, Landcare CarbonSMART.

SEQ Catchments has appointed the state's first 'super assessor', farm forestry officer Paul Daly, who will be responsible for assessing and registering carbon sinks based on biodiverse landcare revegetation plantings on private land.

"We believe the Landcare CarbonSMART model of assisting rural landholders to regenerate land parcels not being used for agriculture is excellent," Mr Daly said.

"It not only delivers the landholder an income stream from carbon credits, it also delivers the inherent benefits of revegetation including stock and crop protection, improvement of erosion and soil salinity problems and invigorated biodiversity, all of which promotes greater productivity on the land."

Landcare CarbonSMART provides financial incentives for landholders to maintain eligible carbon credit vegetation on their land. The amount of carbon absorbed by vegetation is calculated and sold to individuals and businesses to help them take responsibility for carbon emissions.

Landcare CarbonSMART operates as a carbon pool with a majority percentage of sales paid to the landholder, a percentage to a recovery fund (in case of vegetation failure or unavoidable destruction cause by fire or disease) and a percentage to the management and operation of the pool.

Landholders receive annual payments and when the price of carbon rises, so too will payments to landholders with the value of carbon trading estimated to be worth US$3.1 trillion by 2020.

For more information about the Landcare CarbonSMART contact SEQ Catchments on 07 3211 4404.

Catchment Detox is a new online game about catchment management which is a lot of fun and can be quite addictive.

The game puts people in charge of their own catchment where they can decide what activities to undertake; options include planting crops, logging forests, building factories and setting up national parks. The aim is to fix environmental problems and provide food and wealth for the population.

The model behind the game was developed by Nick Marsh, Sylvain Arene and Stuart Minchin in collaboration with the CSIRO Division of Land and Water and the eWater Cooperative Research Centre. It is based on an original idea by NRM advisor Tim Stubbs and consultant Lucy Broad.

In August the ABC local radio ran a special radio series about the real life issues modelled in Catchment Detox. The show detailed how different communities across Australia are grappling with managing our most precious natural resources. At the end of each piece, Tim Stubbs gave extra hints and tips on the game.

Check out the Catchment Detox game online to try to repair a damaged river catchment and create a sustainable and thriving economy.

For some years, natural resources management (NRM) officers in South Australia (SA) have enquired about the range of mechanisms and processes required to effectively engage Aboriginal stakeholders in NRM. Queries have often been about:

• how to start the process of engagement
• cultural considerations and information about working with Aboriginal communities
• clarification of community representatives to approach
• native Title, Indigenous Land Use Agreements, heritage and other relevant legislation.

Questions about these concerns, and more, are answered in Engaging South Australian Aboriginal Communities in Natural Resources Management: A Practical Resource Manual. The user-friendly guide has been produced  to inform and guide people on effectively engaging and working with Aboriginal communities in the regions.

The document aims to provide NRM officers with a greater level of understanding of Aboriginal issues, available support networks and tools for engagement. It will be a very useful resource to assist in including Aboriginal people in market-based instrument projects in South Australia.

Download the Engaging South Australian Aboriginal Communities in Natural Resources Management - A Practical Resource Manual from the SA Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation website.

Land and Water Australia's Social and Institutional Research Program have recently published a number of reports on Indigenous natural resource management.

These are:

Provision for Cultural Values in Water Management: The Anmatyerr Story
Examinines practical ways of identifying, conveying and providing for Indigenous cultural values in water mangement. For more details see The provision for cultural values in water management - The Anmatyerr story.

Healthy Country Healthy People
This project confirms the health benefits tfor Indigenous people who are actively involved in natural and cultural resource management. For more details see the Healthy Country Healthy People paper.

A Cultural and Conservation Economy for Northern Australia
This study examines the suitability of a cultural and conservation economy model for sustainable development in rural and remote Indigenous communities. For more details see the A Cultural and Conservation Economy for Northern Australia paper.

A new website has been set up to provide information on the Australian Government's water entitlement purchases.

The Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong, said the Restoring the Balance in the Murray-Darling Basin Program website contains information on purchases made as part of the government's $50 million water entitlement buy-back to help return Murray-Darling Basin rivers to health.

"The website includes aggregated data about the purchases, including volumes, entitlement type, amount spent and water source," Senator Wong said. "This data will be progressively refined and updated over time as more purchases are concluded. The confidentiality and privacy of sellers will be protected," Senator Wong said.

The Australian Government's initial $50 million buy-back has secured entitlements to 35 billion extra litres of water for Murray-Darling Basin rivers from willing sellers. This was the first ever direct purchase of water by the federal government for the Murray-Darling Basin.

"Purchasing water from willing sellers is a crucial step in supporting healthy rivers and tackling the effects of climate change – priorities under the Australian Government's Water for the Future plan," Senator Wong said.

"A stakeholder consultative committee has been appointed to assist in evaluating the success of the $50 million purchase, and to provide feedback on the design and implementation of the government's water purchase program into the future."

"Our water purchase program will mean that rivers in the Basin will get a greater share of water as it becomes available," Senator Wong said.

North Queensland cane farmers have become increasingly aware of the important role they can play in sustaining the long-term health of the Great Barrier Reef.

As part of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries’ (DPI&F) Reef Extension Project, more than 100 cane farmers from Cairns to Home Hill have been engaged over the past three years.

The project puts in place a dedicated team of extension specialists tasked with assisting producers in the voluntary adoption of management practices capable of supporting profitable sugar production systems, while also improving the quality of water leaving farms and entering the Great Barrier Reef.

Project manager Adam West said, “We worked to showcase how environmentally sensitive management measures could be incorporated into farming systems without having to compromise profitability.”

“Working in partnership with regional natural resource management bodies and industry, the project delivered a range of services including on-farm demonstration trials, workshops and economic assessments," Adam West said.

Senior project officer Rob Milla teamed up with FutureCane and BSES officers to promote relevant farming system components including best practice nutrient, soil health and irrigation management, controlled traffic, legume crops and computer based software tools to enhance record keeping and decision making.

The project assisted the development of an agreed set of Best Management Practices tailored to the Lower Burdekin sugar sector, with a specific emphasis on reducing nutrient, sediment and agri-chemical loss.

For more information, contact the DPI&F Business Information Centre on 13 25 23.

The New South Wales (NSW) Government has acted to free up more water for drought-stricken Murray-Darling farmers.

The NSW Minister for Water announced the relaxing of water trading rules to allow water from the Lower-Darling River to be temporarily traded into the Murray and Murrumbidgee River systems.

The Murray and Murrumbidgee systems remain in the grip of the worst drought on record with many producers in dire need of more water.

The NSW Government has taken this action to make more water available to sustain water-dependent industries, such as permanent plantings.

Under the existing rules, water cannot be traded out of the Lower Darling when the management of the Menindee Lakes is in NSW control. This rule has been relaxed to enable licensed water users in the Lower Darling to trade water from their accounts for the 2008/09 water year.

The Lower Darling water users were allocated some of the flows that reached the Menindee Lakes from the 2007-08 summer floods in northern NSW and Queensland.

However, in many cases the flows came too late for autumn crops and most of this water was carried over to this year’s water accounts.

This rule change gives Lower Darling licensees the choice to use this water to irrigate their crops or to sell to other licensees in the Murray and Murrumbidgee River systems.

This will benefit irrigators in NSW, Victoria and South Australia by immediately increasing the volume of water available on the water market.

The rule change was agreed to by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and will be in place for one year. It applies only to temporary trades with permanent trades not permitted. Additionally, licence holders will be permitted to trade water into the Lower Darling River, provided trade into the valley does not exceed trade out.

The NSW Government is continually monitoring water resources in the Murray-Darling Basin and will continue to take action to provide as much water as possible to local industries.

Registration is open for the Designer Carrots National Market Based Instruments Forum, which is being held on 30 September and 1 October at Rydges South Bank Brisbane, Brisbane.

Whether it’s carrots or sticks that you use for natural resource and environmental management, the National MBIs Forum will provide plenty of dialogue to help you improve your knowledge and understanding of the right incentives for you.

The forum is the finale of the one-year National MBI Capacity Building Program, which is funded by the Australian, State and Territory governments.

The forum has been specifically designed for policy makers, MBI implementers, and researchers to come together to share ideas and lessons, and to help set the future direction of MBIs in Australia.

The forum will include an interesting mix of keynote speakers, panels, facilitated discussions, workshops and a debate. The forum has two broad themes, each with a number of topics and themes for discussion (subject to confirmation).

The big-picture issues to be covered are:

• MBIs in the broader policy spectrum (what?, why?, when?)
• five things everyone needs to know about the current round of national MBI pilot research projects
• the cutting edge: what next for MBIs

Issues relevant to specific applications of MBIs, or environmental problems

• what’s happening in my neck of the woods (a platform for regional NRM bodies, NGOs and other implementers to share lessons from MBI implementation)
• getting the right people and organisations involved in MBIs: optimising communication and participation
  
• monitoring and evaluation of MBIs
  
• metrics
  
• the use of MBIs in different landscapes (peri-urban, rangelands, Indigenous managed land)
  
• Designer Carrots seed money projects: sharing lessons  
  
• the use of MBIs for alternative environmental problems (reef, coastal management, water quality, water quantity and security, vegetation and biodiversity, carbon)
  
• insights and directions in capacity for MBIs.

Date and location
The forum will be held in Brisbane on 30 September and 1 October 2008 at Rydges South Bank in Brisbane, close to the river and the city centre, and in the heart of the lively South Bank precinct.

Costs
There is no charge to attend the forum. However, delegates will have to cover their own cost of travel and accommodation.

 To register, visit the Designer Carrots website.

For more information about the program contact:

• Sean Marler, on 07 3224 7734, or sean.marler@nrw.qld.gov.au
• Claire Heath, on 07 3239 3875 or claire.heath@nrw.qld.gov.au
• Carl Glen, on 07 3239 3884 or carl.glen@nrw.qld.gov.au

In July 2006 the Victorian Government released a statement called Our Environment, Our Future which outlined the state's efforts to start improving the quality of the environment and the way Victorians live. This statement contained 150 key actions  that were considered necessary to make Victoria a sustainable state by responding to a growing number of environmental impacts that Victorians are faced with.

The ecoMarkets project is a component of Our Environment, Our Future, and uses a comprehensive, market-based approach to environmental policy to achieve a full range of ecosystem services.

The name ecoMarkets has been given to the system of market-based approaches designed to reward landholders for environmental improvements on their properties. These programs include market-based approaches such as auctions and cap-and-trade systems.

ecoMarkets has been developed by the Victorian Government to balance ecosystem health and agricultural productivity. Its purpose is to provide incentives for producing ecosystem outcomes such as clean water and biodiversity.

In the past, markets have focused on agricultural and resource commodities without placing a value on the underlying health of the ecosystem. This economic system has not rewarded investment in the revegetation of land, or accounted for the long-term environmental impacts of land use.

For the past 10 years Victoria has championed the development of market-based programs like EcoTender, BushBroker and BushTender. ecoMarkets will build on these schemes. Please visit the Examples of ecoMarkets page for more information about these programs.

Through ecoMarkets, landholders can enter into contracts to improve ecosystem outcomes such as habitat quality, river health and soil health. Instead of choosing what to grow or graze based solely on commodity prices, ecoMarkets will open up a potential new income stream that pays landholders for improving the underlying health of the ecosystem.

Landholders, with the help of skilled field staff, will be able to see first hand the predicted ecosystem outcomes arising from different land and water use options. This will assist landholders with their property planning and decision-making, and allow them to develop detailed contracts specifying the actions they will take to improve ecosystem health.

The ecoMarkets initiative will finetune these market-based approaches, management systems and ecological science. The aim is to demonstrate how economic decision-making informed by ecological science can deliver the best possible environmental outcomes on private land for all Victorians.

The national Market Based Instruments (MBI) Capacity Building Program (Designer Carrots) has been extended until the end of September 2008. Designer Carrots products are now available and they include the following.

Website
Stage two of the Designer Carrots website is now complete and this brings new online tools to the website, including online versions of the MBI decision support tool, metric tool and training modules.

This website provides an ongoing portal for MBI information. It contains all the Designer Carrots fact sheets, case studies and general information on MBIs, and has useful support mechanisms such as the Little Orange Book (a ‘yellow pages’ of MBI practitioners) and an events calendar.

Case studies and fact sheets
Eight fact sheets and three case studies are available from the Designer Carrots website. They have been tailored to various levels of MBI awareness.

Designer Carrots Seed Money
This service is designed to provide the resources to broker knowledge and build the capacity of regional natural resource management (NRM) bodies to implement and design MBIs. It was announced on 31 October 2007 and is timed so key learnings can be communicated at the regional workshops. There were 10 successful applicants who will soon complete their projects.