About
193
Publications
82,607
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
4,305
Citations
Introduction
Ross is Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce, Lincoln University, New Zealand. Ross's research investigated many issues in environmental and resource economics. In 2017 he was elected Distinguished Fellow of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. In 2024 he was awarded Life Membership of New Zealand Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
April 1991 - December 2014
January 1986 - December 1986
January 1978 - April 1991
Publications
Publications (193)
Environmental policies are often contentious because of the public nature of their effects which individuals are typically unable to avoid. This paper provides evidence about the level of public support for and opposition to aerial 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) application to control vertebrate pests, and the role of beliefs about related factors tha...
Marine protected areas such as full no-take marine reserves (MRs) supply numerous ecosystem goods and services, and also deliver conservation and biodiversity benefits, but there are few studies reporting how much the general public values MRs and what factors influence their Willingness to Pay (WTP) for MR management and protection. This study use...
We investigate the economic feasibility of bioelectricity production from biomass in Malaysia, and its impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and storage, agricultural prices, agricultural employment, and deforestation. For this purpose, we develop a partial equilibrium
(PE) model that projects agricultural prices, production, imports, exports, d...
The ninth survey (the series having begun in 2000) of people’s perceptions of the state of the New Zealand environment was undertaken over March–April 2019. The survey is based on the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model of environmental reporting and remains the only long-running survey of this type in the world. For the third time this survey was...
Meeting the growing global demand for agricultural products requires the development and use of ecologically-based strategies that will allow sustainable intensification based on ecosystem services. An important component of this approach is conservation biological control. This approach encompasses a variety of management practices that protect na...
We developed an ecosystem-services based framework to assess the economic benefits derived over the
course of the project, and projected to 2023 – a 10-year benefit time horizon. We considered benefit
attribution to the ACHA project at two levels to provide a value range. We focus primarily on direct benefits
derived within the area, and from water...
This is the fourth edition of the Index to the New Zealand Alpine Journal; earlier editions were published in 1975, 1977 and 1987. Early volumes of the Journal contained indexes, and for a period biennial indexes were published. But from the early 1970's no indexes have been included in the Journal and volunteers have stepped up to create a compreh...
The eighth survey (the series having begun in 2000) of
people’s perceptions of the state of the New Zealand
environment was undertaken over February–March 2016.
The survey is based on the Pressure-State-Response (PSR)
model of environmental reporting and remains the only
long-running survey of this type in the world. For the second
time this survey...
Small-scale farmers in Zambia are faced with problems of low crop productivity, scarcity of fuel wood
and fodder, and subsequently are generally food insecure. Agroforestry can contribute to food and
income security, amelioration of the environment and subsequently, to mitigation of climate change
effects. However, despite all the potential of agro...
The merits of renewable energy, of targeted renewable energy policies, and appropriate evaluation methods, are each contested at various levels including national politics and in energy policy literature. Here, first a range of renewable energy goals across countries and the policies directed at achieving those objectives are reviewed. Second, the...
We report results from a decade of nationwide surveys of New Zealand registered voters and an application of the Natural Area Value Scale that identify differences between a limited set of ethnic groups and between people born in New Zealand and immigrants. Ethnicity and birthplace were important determinants of environmental orientations as measur...
Carbon (C) stocks in the forests of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) participating countries have to be estimated and monitored to determine accurate financial incentives and compensation. The research estimated the distribution of C stock across the different pools and management regimes of tropical Sal forest i...
http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/science-and-technical/sap258entire.pdf
Natural sites are key attractions for tourists in New Zealand. Soaring international visitor arrivals and strong growth in domestic tourism is placing increasing pressure on many New Zealand nature-based tourism sites. A rapidly growing number of businesses advertise their activities to tourists as ‘ecotourism’ but the term suffers from ambiguity a...
There has been increasing demand in Canterbury, New Zealand for the abstraction of water from rivers. This demand has led to the increased interest in dam projects. But, while river impoundment can result in significant benefits, it also can come at "cost", especially to river ecology. Given these benefits and costs, it is essential that impounded...
This research alerts policy makers and managers to the assertion that portraying cost savings as a driver for environmental responsiveness may be misconstrued. If cost savings are a driver for environmental responsiveness, then organizations should exhibit a preference for projects that can lead to such promised cost savings, in preference to other...
The use of self-governance as a fisheries management tool is increasing in New Zealand and elsewhere. Researchers argue that in theory self-governance can lead to improved outcomes, but evaluating actual benefits is difficult because of the need to distinguish self-governance impacts from other influences on fisheries performance. An indicator syst...
The seventh (having begun in 2000) survey of people’s perceptions of the state of the New Zealand environment was undertaken over February-March 2013. The survey is based on the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model of environmental reporting and remains the only long-running survey of this type in the world. For the first time this survey was undert...
This study relates to the Mackenzie Basin case study in New Zealand that exhibits many characteristics of public goods that requires government involvement and covers issues of efficient resource allocation decision-making between irrigation and conservation development in the basin. Many parties have different views on the proposed irrigation proj...
The Greening Waipara Project developed and introduced a number of ecologically and environmentally-focused practices to the Waipara vineyards and wineries of North Canterbury, New Zealand. This paper describes the practices that were introduced to the Waipara wine industry as part of the Greening Waipara Project and evaluates the adoption of these...
Many fisheries economists consider ITQ-based self-governance to be the future of fisheries management. This management regime is argued to have a positive impact on fisheries management. Researchers often use unstructured case studies to empirically evaluate this management regime. Yet those analyses remain discipline-specific. In addition, the met...
Environmental innovations are frequently developed for use in agriculture, but their uptake and continued use is often patchy. In contrast to commercial innovations, environmental innovations often bring social benefits but provide limited commercial benefits. Businesses are unlikely to adopt and continue using environmental innovations that provid...
Ecosystem services are the resources and processes supplied by natural ecosystems which benefit humankind (for example, pollination of crops by insects, or water filtration by wetlands). They underpin life on earth, provide major inputs to many economic sectors and support our lifestyles. Agricultural and urban areas are by far the largest users of...
The use of self-governance as a fisheries management tool is increasing in New Zealand and elsewhere. Researchers argue that in theory self-governance can lead to improved outcomes, but evaluating actual benefits is difficult because of the need to distinguish self-governance impacts from other influences on fisheries performance. An indicator syst...
A range of methodological frameworks is available to assist decision-makers with evaluations of projects concerned with biodiversity conservation (the protection, management or restoration of biodiversity), but their uptake has been relatively limited. Some researchers suggest a lack of research interest to be one contributory factor, in particular...
Biodiversity is under threat globally, and in almost all nations. Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation occur due to a variety of factors including land-use conversion, human population growth, urbanisation, roads and pollution. Invasive species are athreattoendemicspeciesinalmostallcountries,butparticularly in recently settled, and island nations...
Success of wildlife conservation projects is determined by a suite of biological and economic factors. Donor and public understanding of the economic factors is becoming increasingly central to the longevity of funding for conservation efforts. Unlike typical economic evaluation, many costs and benefits related to conservation efforts are realised...
We examine corporate environmental responsiveness in business organizations in India. Based on theoretically informed case analysis, we operationalize corporate environmental responsiveness as a two order construct. We find that level one (the lower level) responsiveness is driven by pressures arising out of powerful supply chain customers and inst...
Nepal has a long history of returning public forests to local people as part of its community forestry programme. In principle the community forestry programme is designed to address both environmental quality and poverty alleviation. However, concern has been expressed that forest policies emphasise environmental conservation, and that this has a...
The effectiveness of biosecurity measures at national borders is influenced by the behaviour and levels of involvement of travellers. Involvement is the importance or relevance of an object or situation to an individual. Involvement helps regulate the way in which people receive and process information and thus influences the extent of information...
The spatial distribution of agri-environmental policy benefits has important implications for the efficient allocation of management effort. The practical convenience of relying on sample mean values of individual benefits for aggregation can come at the cost of biased aggregate estimates. The main objective of this paper is to test spatial hypothe...
There are insufficient resources available globally, nationally and in many regions, to conserve all species, habitats and ecosystems. Prioritisation of targets or actions is a rational response to resource scarcity. Prioritisation can be directed at areas for reservation, species, habitats or ecosystems for management, and threat management action...
We welcome a reply by Innes et al. (2012) to our article (Scofield et al. 2011) questioning the contribution of 'predator-proof' fences. We note that Innes et al. do not question the fundamental points of our thesis: (1) fence costs have not been properly assessed and evaluated; (2) that fenced sanctuaries enhance conservation of species has not be...
Based on a public survey of registered voters, we explore four options for internalising the social and environmental costs of road transport. The options were presented together with generalised factual information about their benefits and costs. Respondents are highly supportive of fuel use efficiency standards and exhaust gas quality standards,...
Increasing substitution of dry land pastoral and arable farming for water-intensive practices is placing pressure on water resources in Canterbury. Although there is a large body of scientific data documenting environmental change, there is a general lack of information on the economic values of agricultural impacts on rivers and streams. This pape...
This study was designed to ascertain the degree to which consumers are concerned about human health and environmental issues arising from both food and wine production. In particular, this study sought, for the first time, to compare consumer perceptions regarding food production practices and wine production practices. Interviewer-administered que...
A review of pest-exclusion fences throughout New Zealand shows that the goals of fence projects are frequently not achieved and cost-benefit analyses often do not adequately quantify ongoing costs. The creation of these sanctuaries enclosed by predator-proof fences often creates small expensive zoos surrounded by degraded habitat that will never be...
In Nepal, many rural households need access to public forest resources to complement private resources for food and livestock production. However, current forest policies are largely directed at environmental protection. The first part of this study identified the effect of current forest policy on livestock production using survey data from 259 ho...
Water projects are typically evaluated using benefit cost analysis. Ecosystem services are the direct and indirect benefits that people obtain from ecosystems. Many of these benefits are ignored in benefit cost analysis, because of the absence of markets and the limited information or understanding of how the benefits from ecosystem services are pr...
Due to the public goods characteristics of many ecosystem services and their vital importance to human welfare, various mechanisms have been put in place to motivate private landowners in the provision of ecosystem services. A common approach is to try to develop a comprehensive ecosystem services market where landowners can receive payments from b...
Preferences for changes to public expenditures were evaluated using a choice experiment. Results indicate potential efficiency gains from reallocation of expenditures to items with higher marginal welfare. In particular, respondents were found to prefer more spending on health, education and the environment, with health spending providing the highe...
Ecosystem services (ES) in agriculture are vital for the sustainable supply of food and fibre, but their economic value has rarely been evaluated in agricultural crops at field level. The current study quantified three key supporting ES associated with highly modified arable landscapes in New Zealand using a novel, experimental ‘bottom-up’ approach...
The role of consumers in driving organizations to be environmentally responsive is currently contentious. It is, however, important to understand the role that consumers play, because they can be a crucial pull factor for organizations. In this paper, we re-examine the role of consumers in driving business organizations to be environmentally respon...
Most ecosystem services (ES) are neither priced nor marketed. Resource managers may fail to take into account degradation of unpriced services in their resource management decisions. Being able to estimate values for ES is fundamental to designing policies to induce resource users to provide (or improve) ES at levels that are acceptable to society....
Ecosystem services (ES), such as biological control, pollination, soil formation, nutrient cycling in agriculture are vital for the sustainable supply of food and fibre. The current trends of decline in the ability of agricultural ecosystems to provide ES pose great threat to food security worldwide. This paper discusses the concept of ES and ident...
Exotic invaders are some of the most serious insect pests of agricultural crops around the globe. Increasingly, the structure
of landscape and habitat is recognized as having a major influence on both insect pests and their natural enemies. Habitat
manipulation that aims at conserving natural enemies can potentially contribute to safer and more eff...
Water projects are typically evaluated using benefit cost analysis. Ecosystem services are the direct and indirect benefits that people obtain from ecosystems. Many of these benefits are ignored in benefit cost analysis, because of the absence of markets and the limited information or understanding of how the benefits from ecosystem services are pr...
New Zealand is the world's largest exporter of dairy products, supplying about one-third of global trade. The dairy sector strives to maintain international competitiveness by continued increases in productivity and intensification in the use of inputs. Increasing intensity of dairy farming and unsustainable agricultural activities contribute to de...
Many researchers have noted that not only natural ecosystems but also landscapes actively modified by humans (engineered or designed ecosystems) can significantly impact the level of ecosystem goods and availability of services, thereby impacting human and social welfare. In New Zealand, agricultural lands are the largest area of engineered ecosyst...
Previous research has suggested that consumers are becoming increasingly concerned by the effects of conventional agricultural food production practices on human health and environmental wellbeing. This study sought to understand whether environmentally sustainable practices in the vineyard would equate to advantages in the wine marketplace. Struct...
Agricultural lands both provide and rely upon important ecosystem services (ES), which are generally unrecognised and uncompensated due to missing markets and market failure. In addition to their essential role in meeting the growing demand for food and other agricultural products, agricultural lands also play an important role in sequestering carb...
Although an estimated US$6 billion is invested annually in our planet's biological diversity, little research has been conducted on which conservation treatments work best or provide best value for money. Where controlled experiments are not possible, econometric techniques can be used to determine the effectiveness of conservation treatments. We u...
Conservation of species is challenging, and there is continuing interest in finding more effective means to achieve conservation goals. State provision of conservation occurs in many countries, alongside a growing range of alternative providers including Not For Profit organisations and the private sector. Few studies have compared the effectivenes...
Sustainability has become a primary goal for much of the legislation which governs resource management in New Zealand. A major difficulty associated with sustainable development objectives, however, is the absence of reliable indicators to measure progress towards the goal of sustainability. The ‘ecological footprint’ provides an estimate of the am...
Improving the conditions for natural enemies through conservation biological control (CBC) in agricultural landscapes has the potential to be economically beneficial, but economic assessments of CBC programs are rarely conducted. In this paper, we discuss how to complete an economic assessment of CBC. We also ask what the research and development (...
While there has been a large increase in investment in plantation forestry in New Zealand by smallholders during the past decade, there are still many smallholders who have chosen not to become involved in this land use or who are using only a portion of their potentially planted land for forestry. To understand why this is the case, this paper stu...
In the current work, a novel, experimental ‘bottom-up’ approach is used to quantify the economic value of ecosystem services (ES) associated with highly modified arable landscapes in Canterbury, New Zealand. First, the role of land management practices in the maintenance and enhancement of ES in agricultural land was investigated by quantifying the...
Although an estimated US$6 billion is invested annually in our planet’s biological diversity, little research has been conducted on which conservation treatments work best or provide best value for money. Conserving biodiversity efficiently depends on identifying conservation treatments which provide greatest return on investment. Where contro...
Despite the scarcity of funding for species conservation programmes, estimation of the cost of threatened species programmes occurs in only a few countries. This paper examines the reasons for the lack of species programme cost estimates and the likely impacts of this on conservation management. We report methodology used to estimate cost for eleve...
Despite the scarcity of funding for species conservation programmes, estimation of the cost of threatened species programmes occurs in only a few countries. This paper examines the reasons for the lack of species programme cost estimates and the likely impacts of this on conservation management. We report methodology used to estimate cost for eleve...
Yield has become a central issue in tourism development. Throughout the world many tourism managers speak of "high yield, low volume" tourism. In New Zealand, for example, the national Tourism Strategy (NZTS2010) has called for improved yield management and sustainable development as its two key goals. In response to these goals Lincoln University...
Management of ecosystem services (ES) is vital to maintain and improve the productivity of agricultural systems in order to meet the food demands of a growing human population. However, some land management practices can severely reduce the ecological and financial contribution of some of these services to agriculture, which in the longer term can...
Responses from nationwide mail surveys are analysed to identify how New Zealanders assess the state of New Zealand lakes, rivers and streams, as well as perceived pressures on, and quality of management of, freshwater resources. In doing so, we identify significant differences between opinions of different demographic groupings. We then compare the...
The Tierra del Fuego government has a statutory responsibility to ensure that Nothofagus forests are sustainably used. To provide strategies to maximize the forest's sustainable benefits for society, this research develops indicators of sustainable management of lenga forests. Multicriteria methods are used to integrate different perspectives regar...
The present article examines the relationship between community forest management policies on the one hand, and income and unemployment in rural areas of Nepal on the other, by modeling the effect of forest management constraints on community forest use. Current government policy dictates the use of all community forestland for environmental conser...
The increase in greenhouse gas emissions and degradation of water quality and quantity in waterways due to dairy farming in New Zealand have become of growing concern. Compared to traditional sheep and beef cattle farming, dairy farming is more input intensive and more likely to cause such environmental damage. Our study uses choice modeling to exp...
Respouses from nationwide mail surveys are analysed to identify how New Zealanders assess the state of New Zealand lakes, rivers and streams, as well as perceived pressures on, and quality of management of freshwater resources. In doing so, we identify significant differences between opinions of different demographic groupings. We then compare thes...
This discussion paper Dimensions of Tourism Yield represents the first in a series of papers that describe and refine various aspects of ‘tourism yield’ as currently manifesting in New Zealand. By way of background the research programme’s overall goals and structure are first introduced. The primary focus of this paper – dimensions of tourism yiel...
In New Zealand, it is increasingly recognised, including by government, that water resource allocation and water quality are issues of national importance. Agriculture is frequently portrayed by public media as a major user of water and a major contributor to worsening water quality. We outline the water management systems in New Zealand, and the u...
Economics is an evolving and emerging filed of study, so is the management of ecosystems. As such, this paper delineates the co-evolution of economic evaluation that reflects the various recognized ecosystem management approaches of anticipative, adaptive and capacitive ecosystem management. Each management approach is critiqued and from this theor...
Paper presented at the New Zealand Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Conference, 24-25 August 2006, Nelson, New Zealand. Beginning in 2000 Lincoln University has completed biennial surveys of people's perceptions of the state of the New Zealand environment. The surveys use the Pressure-State-Response framework for state of the environment...
This research studies the effects on income and employment when externally imposed policies constrain use of common forest reso urces. Using a mixed-integer linear programming model, the study examines the impacts of cons ervation-oriented community forest policies in Nepal on three household income groups. The results show that current community f...
The study examines the importance of community forest resources for income and employment in rural areas of Nepal by studying the effect of current forestry policy on forestland use. Using data from 259 households in six community forest user groups in three hilly districts (Dolakha, Kavre and Nuwakot), the results show that the resources available...
The fourth biennial survey of people’s perceptions of the state of the New Zealand environment was undertaken in February - March 2006. The survey is based on the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model of state of the environment reporting. It tests New Zealanders’ perceptions of all the main resource areas and in 2006 also looked more specifically at...
Nature conservation can often be costly and the resources available are often less than are required. Resource allocations and expenditures for nature conservation have an opportunity cost in terms of foregone projects, but are rarely subjected to as much scrutiny as other public activities. Failure to apply economic tools to nature conservation de...
This paper estimates the effect of introducing unit pricing for municipal domestic waste collection and disposal in Christchurch. The price effect is shown in a demand model estimation using data collected in a contingent valuation survey of Christchurch households conducted in 2003. The results show a small but significant price effect. Households...
Much attention is focused on conservation efforts to protect and recover threatened species. As part of these efforts, many projects attempt to manage sites containing populations of more than one threatened species. Evaluation of those multiple-species projects is essential to determine their success and cost effectiveness in the conservation of t...
Stated preference approaches are widely used in non-market valuation. However, their potential uses extend far beyond valuation. In particular they can be used to assess efficiency of resource allocations and to design optimal resource allocations. Changes to the government budget were evaluated using a choice experiment. Results indicate potential...
Common forests in developing countries are valuable sources of raw material supplies, employment and income generation, particularly for low income households. This paper looks at the effect on income and employment when common forest resources have external policies that constrain their use. Using a mixed-integer linear programming model, this stu...
Nationwide mail surveys implemented in November 2004 report New Zealand residents‟ willingness to pay for improvement in ecosystem services and support for organic farming on arable land. The surveys were split into two subsets: Canterbury, which is the region with most arable farming in the nation, and the other New Zealand regions. Analysis of th...
