Sayed Iftekhar

• Associate Professor at Griffith University

Private landholders play a critical role in global biodiversity conservation as they manage significant portions of land in many countries. Understanding the motivations and barriers related to landholders' uptake of formal conservation agreements, such as conservation covenants, is essential for scaling up and prioritizing investment in biodiversi...

Effective private land conservation strategies that consider both landholder preferences and future climatic conditions are critical for preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services. Yet, the interaction and relative importance of these factors for conservation planning performance is unknown. Here, we assess the importance of considering landhol...

In groundwater‐constrained areas, reallocating groundwater away from agriculture to achieve environmental outcomes has become a popular top‐down regulatory approach. However, little attention has been paid to understanding public preferences for such policies. Using a choice experiment, we explore community preferences for different components of a...

Effective private land conservation strategies that consider both landholder preferences and future climatic conditions are critical for preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services. Yet, the interaction and relative importance of these factors for conservation planning performance is unknown. Here, we assess the importance of considering landhol...

Living streams are an important element of decentralised stormwater management solutions. They are actively promoted due to their ability to generate multiple ecosystem services, including water quality improvement, biodiversity protection, and aesthetics. However, a lack of monetised values of ecosystem services of living stream projects makes it...

Biodiversity offsets are a popular policy tool for mitigating the impact of development on biodiversity, but the ecological success of offsets arise from complex interactions among socio‐economic, ecological and policy processes, making outcomes challenging to assess. Many offset policies use habitat surrogates to determine offset requirements, rat...

We present the results of a meta-analysis of the household-size water demand elasticity. The analysis is based on 75 primary studies. As there is evidence of publication bias, publication bias corrected estimates are reported. For indoor water use, we find that in countries with GDP per capita below $10,000, the household-size elasticity is around...

A global shift in urban slum improvement programmes is underway to step beyond the conventional approach by practicing a more participatory approach. Previous studies have found that slum upgrading projects are likely to be ineffective and unsustainable without the active participation of slum dwellers. Therefore, it is imperative to identify the p...

The Green Triangle (GT) region of southern Australia is one of only two jurisdictions globally to licence plantation forestry's groundwater use. In response to declines in groundwater resources caused by historical plantation expansion, reductions in forest water allocations (~50%) are likely for some parts of the region, presenting novel challenge...

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis has been used to explain the relationship between environmental degradation and economic condition. This study formulates an augmented EKC framework to incorporate the effect of agriculture, forestation and energy consumption on CO2 emission and estimates the model using the data from 24 OECD countri...

Urban parks are an essential component of city infrastructure providing multiple ecosystem services. While there are many studies exploring the usage of urban parks within a country, cross-country comparisons are rare. Comparative studies of use–diversity of urban parks between developing and developed countries are almost absent. To address this r...

Water sensitive practices can improve water quality and city livability, but the extent to which these practices improve the welfare of residents is not well researched. We contribute to knowledge in this area using Singapore's Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) Program as a case study. The program includes the renovation and integration...

https://theconversation.com/7-langkah-untuk-kurangi-hilangnya-pembelajaran-learning-loss-akibat-pandemi-covid-19-187071

School closures and the shift to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in learning loss in developed and developing countries. Learning loss is generally defined as any specific or general loss of knowledge and skills or reversals in academic progress when students are not in school. A recent report jointly published by the Wo...

In this paper, we assess residents' preferences for different options of large-scale water sensitive urban improvement of a heritage site in Melbourne, the Main Outfall Sewer (MOS) reserve. We use a hedonic pricing analysis and a discrete choice experiment to understand the benefits associated with improving the MOS reserve. We find that there are...

The Gnangara groundwater system is Western Australia’s most important groundwater resource, but it is being depleted. Although Australia has been at the forefront of establishing water markets, Western Australia has been slow to adopt legislation that would support trade in groundwater. This study explores the impact of introducing groundwater trad...

In the face of the ongoing biodiversity crisis, questions are arising regarding the success, or lack thereof, of biodiversity offset schemes, where biodiversity losses from human development are compensated by producing equitable gains elsewhere. The overarching goal of offsetting is to deliver no net loss (NNL) of biodiversity. Assessing whether o...

Without the designing and implementing of water sensitive housing designs, unplanned infill developments could have a substantial adverse effect on the natural environment. Water sensitive housing options could help meet housing demand while minimising the environmental impacts associated with typical infill development. However, whether the market...

The cost of providing environmental goods and services by private landholders is often highly uncertain. However, standard bidding models for conservation tenders often ignore this uncertainty. As a result, they fail to suggest suitable mechanisms to reduce the negative impact of cost uncertainty. We contribute to this knowledge gap by developing a...

In the face of a shrinking budget for environmental activities, conservation agencies must design and implement agri-environmental policies that cost-effectively meet the environmental objectives. However, designing such programs is often challenging due to different uncertainties. For example, landholders may be exposed to risks when carrying out...

Conventional agri-environmental schemes (AES) have been criticized for failing to exploit conservation synergies that could be obtained from spatial coordination of conservation efforts. Understanding the design and implementation of novel incentive mechanisms explicitly designed to boost spatial coordination of conservation efforts is, therefore,...

Traditional centralized water-management systems have tended to fall short in delivering environmental and amenity benefits in urban areas. Water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) projects have been proposed as an alternative due to their ability to generate multiple benefits, including improving water quality, water supply, aesthetics, urban cooling,...

Many cities and urban areas are growing rapidly to accommodate increased population and economic activities. However, unplanned urban growth is putting significant pressure on existing water supply systems, green infrastructures, and natural systems, especially in developing countries. The water sensitive cities concepts allow to plan and systemati...

COVID-19 has disrupted all strands of life, including the educational sector. To manage the spread of the disease, schools and academic institutions were closed and locked down. According to an estimate by UNESCO, educational institution closures due to COVID-19 impacted nearly 94% of the global student population - this accounts for almost 1.6 bil...

Incentive payments to landholders have become increasingly popular as mechanisms to achieve conservation goals. Within these mechanisms economists commonly recommend competitive tenders over fixed rate payment schemes because (a) specialist knowledge of landholders about their own enterprises and costs can be utilized, (b) auction prices are more l...

The land-based private sector is a critical player in reducing emissions in Indonesia. While the Indonesian Government has undertaken various national efforts to reduce the rate of deforestation and land degradation, the involvement of land-based private sectors are still minimal. Using content and thematic analysis, this study explores why land-ba...

Buyback auctions to reduce groundwater extraction for agriculture have been used in many real world scenarios but, to date, the impact of different auction design mechanisms for this context has not been comprehensively studied. Here, three auction design issues are studied: (i) framing the overall objective as either a budget constrained auction o...

Creating water sensitive cities is a stated goal of Australia's National Water Initiative; however, most Australian cities have made only limited progress toward this goal. This paper summarises an in-depth collaborative research project that sought to understand what is holding back investment in water sensitive cities and identify a road map to a...

In the immediate future, accessible runoff of fresh water is unlikely to increase more than the demand forecasted. It will have an impact on economic growth as it may reduce the per capita income of countries and create water conflicts. Such global threat creates a policy conundrum of how to meet basic needs and maximise the benefits from water res...

Globally, the agriculture sector is the largest user of groundwater, and to manage declining groundwater resources, reducing groundwater extraction by the agriculture sector is an active policy objective in many jurisdictions. Estimating the cost to agriculture in terms of lost gross margin due to the implementation of exogenously determined water...

Rain gardens are an established element of water sensitive urban infrastructure. However, information on people's preferences for such systems is lacking. To understand whether people express willingness to pay for such systems and whether estimates are transferable between locations, we conducted choice experiments in Sydney and Melbourne. We foun...

Many parts of the world, including Australia, are facing acute groundwater shortages. Recycled wastewater is emerging as an important alternative, sustainable, substitute for groundwater. However, before water utilities can invest in water recycling projects, they need information on the demand for recycled water. A comprehensive literature search...

Different policy mechanisms to encourage private property developers to adopt sustainable drainage features have been tried in many countries with moderate success. Singapore's ABC Waters Programme encourages the adoption of sustainable drainage by private developers through certification amongst others. However, this has not been implemented by al...

Improving acceptability of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) projects among local households requires adaptive policy approach based on the implementation experience of such projects. This paper analyses the current state of REDD+ implementation in Indonesia based on a synthesis of policy documents, published stud...

The integration of sustainability principles into disaster management research suggests a shift from traditional expert-driven assessment to a more community-driven process. However, most studies have focused on a generalized and regional assessment of perceived risk. Only a few of them have focused on informal settlements which belong to the most...

Most of Australia's native-forest vegetation is located on private land, and conservation success often depends on farmers' participation in bush management programmes. We surveyed 251 landholders within the Brigalow Belt bioregion of southeast Queensland and asked them to make pairwise comparisons of 10 non-financial incentives and one financial i...

The positive impacts of water sensitive urban investments on the environment, community well-being, and lifestyles are widely recognised, but the process of formally quantifying these intangible benefits remains an underdeveloped research area. The monetary value of intangible benefits can be estimated using non-market valuation techniques. Here, w...

By employing Ostrom’s set of eight design principles (DPs) as an analytical framework, this study evaluates the robustness of the institutions introduced by Territorial Use Rights for Fisheries (TURFs) and investigates how the DPs are interrelated. Data were collected from unstructured and semi-structured interviews with government officials and fi...

This study explored the possible role of recycled water in transforming Subiaco Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) into a Strategic Resource Precinct (SRP). Subiaco WWTP is one of the largest treatment plants in Western Australia, currently servicing a catchment of around 240,000 people that includes the Perth Central Business District. The SRP conc...

Attempts to better understand the social context in which conservation and environmental decisions are made has led to increased interest in human social networks. To improve the use of social‐network analysis in conservation, we reviewed recent studies in the literature in which such methods were applied. In our review, we looked for problems in r...

Objective or research question. The objective of this paper is to understand whether greater involvement of local councils in the planning and development of the infills generates a better outcome for the residents, as reflected in house prices. Background. The Australian population is growing at a rapid rate and is expected to double by 2061. Two...

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to natural and man-made disasters. There exist many programmes for disaster management and prevention operated by government and non-government organisations. However, how accessible these programmes are to the most vulnerable section of the community is an open question. In order to contribute to...

The means of achieving urban consolidation is extensively discussed in urban planning literature. However, it is not completely clear how consolidation goals could be facilitated by promoting homes on smaller lots. The paper addresses the dichotomy in Perth’s housing market created by strong policy support for apartments and multi-occupancy dwellin...

In various countries, offset policies allow economic developments to proceed on condition that proponents undertake agreed actions that offset the resulting losses of environmental values. Although ecological and environmental benefits are the main concern of a conservation agency when assessing an offset proposal, it is also important to be aware...

Although Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) projects have been extensively trialled, the benefits and costs perceived by households are not fully understood. This study examined the benefits and costs perceived by households under private, government and community forest regimes in Indonesia. This study also analys...

Web-based experiments that cut across the lab vs. field distinction are increasingly popular with economists. However, non-standardized software features and services hinder comparability and replication. This study reviews a wide selection of experimental economics software packages and evaluates them against criteria based on the logistics and op...

Water sensitive urban design is being promoted in many countries. In Singapore, the Active, Beautiful, Clean (ABC) Waters Programme is a long-term strategic initiative of PUB, Singapore's National Water Agency, to improve the quality of water and urban liveability. While there are some estimates of the bio-physical and ecological benefits of the AB...

Poor river health creates ecological problems, poses a public health risk and becomes a nuisance to the residents. Making decisions about management actions to restore ecosystem health, for example through reduction of nutrients runoff, requires information about the value of the healthy ecosystem, and in particular the value of water quality. Impo...

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has been piloted in several developing countries. Limited funding available for REDD+ suggests that there is a need to adopt a targeted approach (i.e., targeting selected groups or regions) to make REDD+ projects more effective. However, there is no clear understanding of how targ...

Conservation tenders are being used as a policy mechanism to deliver environmental benefits through changes in land, water and biodiversity management. While these mechanisms can potentially be more efficient than other agrienvironmental and payment for ecosystem service schemes, a key limitation in practice is that participation rates from eligibl...

Successful implementation of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) projects depends on active support and participation by local households. It has been suggested that households' support for REDD+ could be influenced by their socioeconomic conditions, their experience with REDD+ projects and local forest management r...

The problem of excess capacity has persisted in many fisheries worldwide, threatening the sustainability of fisheries, even in cases where there are regulatory restrictions on fishing inputs. Getting fishers involved in monitoring illegal fishing has been one of the solutions proposed to tackle excessive investment in fishing capacity. However, the...

Environmental and Resource Economics is one of the premier journals in the field of environmental economics. It was established with an aspiration to focus more on applied and policy relevant research compared to other established journals, and to establish better channels of communication and collaboration between researchers from Europe and other...

A promising way to address the growing demand for water supply and improve the liveability of cities is to invest in decentralised multifunctional urban water technologies. However, the adoption of multifunctional water technologies is a complex issue that requires cross-disciplinary approaches. This paper uses an agent-based model that integrates...

This study explores community preferences regarding alternative land uses in wastewater treatment plant buffer zones in Western Australia. The study uses the choice experiment method, and is the first study to apply this method to the context of wastewater treatment plant buffer zone management. In the study there are two information conditions and...

Excess capacity has become a growing concern for sustainable fisheries worldwide, even in cases where there are regulatory restrictions on fishing inputs. Engaging fishers in monitoring illegal fishing has been one of the solutions proposed to tackle excessive investment in fishing capacity. However, the real effects of participation in monitoring...

Conservation auctions or tenders (CTs) are gaining popularity globally due to their ability to generate efficiency gains with limited public funding. However, the existence of various types of uncertainties, in particular, the cost of delivering environmental goods (own-cost uncertainties), can undermine the attractiveness of CTs as a conservation...

This study explores strategic behaviour in market-based conservation programs using 5 cooperative games and experimental economic methods. The study has two objectives (1) to better understand strategic coalition formation in conservation programs and (2) evaluate how well traditional cooperative game solutions perform compared to experimental resu...

To purchase unpriced public environmental goods from private landholders, economists have been advising government agencies the use of competitive tenders (auctions), which, theory suggests, can deliver more cost-effective outcomes. However, their uptake has to date been rather limited, and where implemented, participation has often been dismal. Th...

Conservation auctions are used to secure ecosystem services from private landholders. Such auctions are often repeated over multiple periods. As a result, landholders can learn from their own experience of tendering as well as from others who have participated in these types of auctions before. However, how social learning might influence the perfo...

Conservation tenders are being used as a policy mechanism to deliver environmental benefits through changes in land, water and biodiversity management. While these mechanisms can potentially be more efficient than other options, a key limitation in practice is that participation rates from eligible landholders are often low, limiting both efficienc...

There is a sharp contrast between the theoretical advantages of conservation (reverse) auctions and the on-the-ground realities of implementation. Low participation rates have largely undermined potential advantages in terms of outcomes achieved and cost effectiveness. One assumption typically made in theoretical studies is that bidders perfectly k...

There is a sharp contrast between the theoretical advantages of conservation (reverse) auctions and the on-the-ground realities of implementation. Low participation rates have largely undermined potential advantages in terms of outcomes achieved and cost effectiveness. One assumption typically made in theoretical studies is that bidders perfectly k...

Sustainable fisheries management largely depends on how effectively fishing regulations are enforced, which often relies on active monitoring by fishers. If fishers perceive that monitoring schemes do not fulfill their needs, they will resist participating in monitoring. However, fisheries managers worldwide have been making blanket assumptions abo...

Nature-based solutions provide a variety of benefits in growing cities, ranging from stormwater treatment to amenity provision such as aesthetics. However, the decision-making process involved in the installation of such green infrastructure is not straightforward, as much uncertainty around the location, size, costs and benefits impedes systematic...

Conservation auctions often follow an ‘all or nothing’ bid selection approach, which restricts the selection of the most suitable parts of a submitted project. The problem with ‘lumpy’ (or all-or-nothing) project selection has been identified in the literature as a major problem in conservation policy; however, the extent of the problem has been ra...

There is an aggravated trend of climate-induced migrants to be ended up in urban slums. It is estimated that around 70% of slum dwellers in Bangladeshi cities moved there fleeing some sort of environmental shock. However, such destinations do not guaranty socioeconomic security rather intensify livelihood risks and vulnerabilities in terms of housi...

Local governments in Perth, Western Australia, use groundwater to irrigate high value public open space. Due to a sustained decline in rainfall current groundwater extraction rates are unsustainable and are set to be reduced. We investigate the cost-effectiveness of different water efficiency improvement technology solutions. There is significant v...

Emerging as an innovation for improving the management of overexploited fisheries around the world, rights-based fisheries management systems are being implemented in the form of either species-or area-based management. While there are numerous reviews on species-based management, there have been none on area-based management. To fill this gap, we...

In this paper, we analyse the effects of different types of formal collaboration and research topics on research impact of academic articles in the area of agricultural, resource, environmental, and ecological economics. The research impact is measured by the number of times an article has been cited each year since publication. The topics within t...

Almost all environmental management comes at an economic cost that may not be borne equitably by all stakeholders. Here, we investigate how heterogeneity in catch and profits among fishers influences the trade-off among the triple-bottom-line objectives of recovering a fish population, maximizing its economic value and distributing restrictions equ...

This paper studies the performance of auction design features regarding pricing mechanisms and bid selection criteria for securing wildlife zones across different holdings. We compare two pricing mechanisms: a discriminatory-price auction and a uniform-price ascending auction, and four bid selection criteria on the basis of: total bid, bid-per-value...

Restoration scientists and practitioners have recently begun to include economic and social aspects in the design and the investment decisions for restoration projects. With few exceptions, ecological restoration studies that include economics focus solely on evaluating costs of restoration projects. However, economic principles, tools and instrume...

In many parts of the world groundwater is being depleting at an alarming rate. Where groundwater extraction is licensed, regulators often respond to resource depletion by reducing all individual licences by a fixed proportion. This approach can be effective in achieving a reduction in the volume of water extracted, but the approach is not efficient...