INFFER (Investment Framework For Environmental Resources)
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INFFER
(Investment Framework For Environmental Resources)
Background and Overview
Context
Budgets small compared to the problems
Environmental protection more expensive
than we’ve often allowed for
Spatial heterogeneity
Prioritisation is essential but difficult
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Institutional context
Concerns about outcomes from regional
investment
Treasury, Australian National Audit Office
concerns about value for public money from
NRM investment
Greater focus on outcomes in Caring for our
Country and by some state governments
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What does INFFER help with?
How to get value for money from NRM
budget?
What is realistic/feasible?
Appropriate delivery mechanisms?
Project design
Give confidence to funders
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General emphases
Natural assets
Outcomes
Value for money
Multiple threats
Multiple asset types
Technical & socio-economic (equal emphasis)
Policy tools/delivery mechanisms
Transparency
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Regional users
South West (WA)
Avon (WA)
South Coast (WA)
Northern Agric (WA)
Rangelands (WA)
Perth (WA)
Lachlan (NSW)
Central West (NSW)
Border Rivers/Gwydir (NSW)
Northern Rivers (NSW)
Namoi (NSW)
North East (Vic)
North Central (Vic)
Corangamite (Vic)
West Gippsland (Vic)
East Gippsland (Vic)
Goulburn Broken (Vic)
Port Phillip & Westernport
(Vic)
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Based on experience
Builds on lessons from previous frameworks and
from use by 15 regions
As simple as possible, but comprehensive
Highly structured and guided process
Template
Actively supported
Help desk
Workshops
Regular phone-hookup meetings
Fully documented
All documents freely available at www.inffer.org
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Asset types
Wetland
•Listed on register
•Last of its type
River reach
•Intact native veg
•Cultural heritage
•Woodland birds
Threatened species
•Flagship
•Critically endangered
Native vegetation
•Concentration of threatened species
•Near pristine condition
•Important location
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What is the output?
An assessment for each asset
Background information about the asset
A specific, measurable, time-bound goal
On-ground works that will achieve that goal
Delivery actions that will result in those works
Information about asset value, threats/damage,
technical feasibility, socio-economic feasibility,
urgency, cost, risks
Benefit:Cost Index (comparable across projects)
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What sorts of projects?
Ones that will deliver NRM outcomes for
identifiable natural assets, which can be
large or small
degraded or pristine
localised or dispersed
any sort of natural asset
Not
Untargeted capacity building
M&E not linked to a specific project
R&D not linked to a specific asset
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INFFER Pre-Assessment Checklist
Asset focus
1. Can you clearly identify the environmental or natural resource
asset?
2. Will it be possible to define a goal for the asset that is
“SMART”?
Cost-effectiveness
3. Is there evidence to indicate that management actions can
make a real difference?
4. If the desired management actions are mainly on private land,
is it likely that those actions would be reasonably attractive to
fully informed land managers when adopted over the required
scale?
5. If the project requires change by other institutions is there a
good chance that this will occur?
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North Central
CMA
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The INFFER Process
INFFER process
Can be applied to individual assets
Run small number of cherry-picked assets
through the process
Helps with project development
Helps assess whether it is worth pursuing the
project
Better to be a comprehensive process
Community consultation + other info sources
A more comprehensive look at the project options
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Comprehensive process
1. Develop a list of significant natural assets in the
relevant region(s)
2. Apply an initial filter to the asset list, using a
simplified set of criteria
3. Define projects and conduct detailed assessments
of them
4. Select priority projects
5. Develop investment plans or funding proposals
6. Implement funded projects
7. Monitor, evaluate and adaptively manage projects
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Rationale for the process
Starts broad, with far too many assets
Reduce list somewhat with simplified
criteria
No point in great sophistication at this
stage
Few enough make it through to make
a good assessment practical
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How long does it take?
New user: around 5 person-days per asset to
complete Project Assessment Form
Experienced user: 1-2 days per asset, if
information and experts accessible
Could be extended to encompass detailed
modelling if desired
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What skills needed?
Ideally, good knowledge of asset(s)
Able to engage with experts
Understand NRM projects – some experience
in implementation
Capture and interpret technical and socioeconomic information
Make judgements based on partial
information
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INFFER and knowledge gaps
Makes the best of the available info
Captures key knowledge gaps
Ratings for quality of information
Possible outcomes
Project to fill knowledge gaps
Data collection/investigation within the project
Feasibility assessment as phase 1 of project
Captures risks of project failure
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Project Assessment Form
Project Assessment Form
Completed for every project
Could be more than one alternative project
for the same asset
Guided process to collect the required
information
Detailed instruction manual
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Project Assessment Form
Currently a word document
Converting it to a piece of software
Stand-alone or web based
Automate calculations
Easier navigation
Instructions hidden until needed
FAQs
Example responses
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1. The asset
Spatial definition of the asset
Significance/importance of the asset
Key threats
Existing projects
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2. Goal, works
Setting a specific, measurable, time-bound
goal
On-ground actions to achieve goal
Actions by other organisations
Time lags until benefits
Effectiveness of works
Risk of technical failure
Spin-offs (positive and negative)
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3. Socio-economics
Anticipated adoption of works by private
land/water managers
Encompasses community capacity and
knowledge
Risk of practice changes for the worse
Approvals
Socio-economic risks
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4. Budget
Delivery mechanisms
Private citizens
Other organisations
Works, investigation and management
Costs
Up front (3-5 years)
Long-term maintenance costs
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5. Project info
Project title
Project summary
Funder’s targets and outcomes
Outputs and intermediate outcomes
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Public and private benefits
and choice of NRM policy instruments
Public: private benefits framework
Selects the most appropriate policy tool for
a given circumstance
Relevant to change on private land
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Public and private benefits
“Private benefits” relate to the landholder
making the decisions
“Public benefits” relate to all others
neighbours, downstream water users, city
dwellers interested in biodiversity
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Each dot is a set of
land-use changes
on specific pieces
of land = a project.
Which tool?
• Incentives
• Extension
• Regulation
• New technology
• No action
Lucerne
Farm B
Public net benefits
Possible projects
0
Current
practice
Lucerne
Farm A
Private net benefits
Forestry in
water
catchment
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Alternative policy mechanisms
for seeking changes on private lands
Category
Specific policy mechanisms included
Positive incentives
Financial or regulatory instrumentsA to encourage
change
Negative incentives
Financial or regulatory instrumentsA to inhibit change
Extension
Technology transfer, education, communication,
demonstrations, support for community network
Technology change
Development of improved land management options,
e.g. through strategic R&D
No action
Informed inaction
AIncludes
polluter-pays mechanisms (command and control, pollution tax, tradable permits,
offsets) and beneficiary-pays mechanisms (subsidies, conservation auctions and tenders).
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Simple rules
for allocating mechanisms to projects
A
B
Public net benefit
1. No positive incentives for
land-use change unless public
net benefits of change are
positive.
2. No positive incentives if
landholders would adopt
land-use changes without
those incentives.
3. No positive incentives if
overall costs outweigh
benefits.
F
0
C
E
D
Private net benefit
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Simple public-private framework
Public net benefit
Positive
incentives or
technology
change
Technology
change
(or no action)
Extension
No action
0
No action
(or extension or
negative incentives)
No action (or
flexible negative
incentives)
Negative
incentives
Private net benefit
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How applied
Project Assessment Form collects info
Public net benefits
Asset significance
Threats, Effectiveness of works
Time lags, Risks
Private net benefits
Adoption of the required works
Simple written guide – will be automated
Does not dictate mechanisms: you choose
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Benefit: Cost Index
The BCI
An index of benefits from the project
Total costs (project and ongoing)
Difference from Benefit: Cost Ratio is
that in INFFER we don’t express
intangible benefits in $
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Benefit: Cost Index
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Flexible
Can compare large and small projects
Can compare short and long projects
Allows comparison of projects for different
types of assets
Waterways
Wetlands
Vegetation
Threatened species
Agricultural land
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Example BCI ranking
Project
Benefit: Cost Index
Budget
4
10.0
$3m
2
8.1
$13m
5
7.2
$1m
1
4.0
$0.5
6
1.1
$1m
3
0.8
$9m
If budget = $17m, preferred projects are 4, 2 & 5
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Advantages of the BCI
Avoids common problems in metrics used for
ranking environmental projects
Add when they should multiply variables
Fail to divide by project costs (e.g. subtract costs,
or just leave it out!)
Omit key variables (common to ignore adoption
and technical feasibility)
All three
Cost of poor metrics is huge
Benefits of investment roughly halved
BCI can easily double environmental benefits
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Interpretation and use of
results
Project assessment report
Title, summary, etc.
Benefit: Cost Index
Time lag until benefits delivered
Risks of project failure
Spin-offs
Quality of information
Key knowledge gaps
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Principles
The info is an input to decision making
BCI is not to be used mechanistically
All-things-considered judgement
Other things may matter
Need a process of QA to give the decision
makers confidence
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Challenges
Challenges
For many environmental managers it’s a very
different way to do business
Having to provide comprehensive info
Particular concepts new to people
Ideally, need an asset expert with
comprehensive knowledge
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Typical problems for new people
Difficulties with “asset” and goal
Poor link between threat and works/actions
Required land-use changes not quantified
Tend to stick with comfort zones
Unrealistic expectations of adoption
Not adequately costed
Insufficient detail to judge the project
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Requirements to get through
Training
One-to-one support
INFFER team offers training and one-to-one
support
Getting to resource limits
Vic govt planning to provide a training/support
Clear signals from government that there
will be benefits to those managers who do it
well
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Project Examples
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Example
Upper
Lachlan River
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Upper Lachlan River
Goal – improve condition and connectivity, protect
fish
Threats – loss of habitat (riparian and in stream),
sediments –nutrients, sand slugs
Management – fencing, grazing exclusion, habitat
restoration, sediment slug control, gully control,
groundcover
Moderate impact on threats
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Upper Lachlan River (cont’d)
Adoption
Little/none without incentives
Standard CMA cost sharing ~50% adoption
Achievable for some elements, unlikely for larger
management changes (gully, groundcover)
Overall cost around $3 million
BCI 3.6 (pretty good)
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Lachlan Ranges
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Lachlan Ranges
High value, but not a ‘jewel’?
Goal – high conservation vegetation
Maintain extent and condition
Threats – weeds, invasive native species, ag
impacts
Reduce threat from high to medium
Management – grazing management, direct
weed/pest control, reveg
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Lachlan Ranges (cont)
Adoption
Little/none without incentives
Standard CMA cost sharing anticipates >50%
adoption
Analysis recommended
stewardship payments
7 landholders
Overall cost $1.81 million
BCI 4.65
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Patho Plains
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Patho Plains
Very high value
Small remnants dispersed over large area
Goal – high conservation vegetation
Maintain extent and condition
Threats – weeds, over grazing, cultivation
Reduce threat from high to medium
Management – grazing management, direct
weed control
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Patho Plains (cont)
Adoption
Little/none without incentives
Current MBI payments 25-50% adoption
100+ landholders
Overall cost $5 million
BCI 1.75
100
Positive
incentives or
tech change
Public net benefit ($/ha/year)
Technology
change
(or no action)
Extension
50
No action
No action
0
-100
-50
No action
(or extension or
negative incentives)
0
50
100
No action (or
flexible negative
incentives)
-50
Negative
incentives
-100
Private net benefit ($/ha/year)
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Acknowledgements
Affiliations of the INFFER team
University of Western Australia
Department of Primary Industries, Victoria
North Central Catchment Management Authority
Future Farm Industries CRC
Other key funders
Australian Research Council (Federation Fellow Program)
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the
Arts (CERF Program)
Department of Sustainability and Environment , Victoria
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