Sarah Lumley

Interpreting Economics, Rhetoric and Sustainable Development: Some implications for policy determination

Many of the controversies about environmental resource use relate to the perceived conflict between economics and conservation. This conflict might have been resolved with general acceptance of the concept of sustainable development, and with a more transparent and honest use of economics terminology. However, interpretation and application of this concept appear to have led to some further conflicts between perceptions of economics and the environment, partly because commerce and development are sometimes portrayed as having the same meaning. Commercial activity resulting from the use of natural resources is often held to promote social good, while conservation of natural resources, many argue, renders the wealth which may be obtained from such resources unavailable. The latter is deemed to be bad for society. However, although in contemporary parlance economics is usually restricted implicitly to issues concerning commerce, finance and profit, economic theory requires the consideration also of intangibl...

Locational and socio-economic variation in public perceptions of economics and the environment

Government policies for the use of publicly owned environmental resources in Australia are often justified as being for the ‘economic good’ of the nation. Yet there has been little enquiry about how Australians perceive ‘economic good’ in the context of the use of environmental resources. The residents of five State government electorates of Perth and one in regional south west Western Australia were surveyed. Their perceptions of economics, the environment and resources in relation to public policy were assessed. The differences in the responses were greater between the different electorates, than between the different socio-economic strata within the same electorate. This paper examines the spatial variability of the results and raises the possibility of developing a ‘socio-locational’ indicator of attitudes which could provide a tool for policy implementation.

Assessing Economic Benefits of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi as a Potential Indicator of Soil Health

A measure of the presence, function and economic value of arbuscular mycorrhizas is proposed as a potential indicator of soil health. The roles of hyphae in soil include enhancing the efficiency of plant access to nutrients, especially phosphorus, facilitating plant access to water under water-limiting conditions, protection of soil organic matter, and strengthening resilience against disease. As such, mycorrhizas can influence economic benefits through their direct and indirect effects on plants associated with chemical, physical and biological components of soil fertility. Although the presence of mycorrhizas is pivotal to many soil processes, their potential contributions can be overridden by soil management decisions that do not take them into account. Nevertheless, it is difficult to quantify the economic benefits of mycorrhizas in agricultural ecosystems. Risk minimisation strategies can be used to deal with some or all of the factors that impede realistic economic valuation of mycorrhizas. However, without even rudimentary local knowledge of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in agricultural ecosystems, there is potential for management practices to fail to consider fully, and consequently fail to capture, benefits from these widespread and potentially beneficial soil organisms especially if their contribution is difficult to quantify.

Losing the Lands of Plenty? Time Scale and Discounting in Environmental Governance

Environmental policy, focusing on the control of pollution and on over-exploitation, easily overlooks the extensive range of interconnections between economic activities and natural systems. In this timely book, a number of specialists examine how crucial aspects of complex environmental problems and policy can be dealt with in decentralized governmental systems.