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Old knowledge in freshwater: Why traditional ecological knowledge is essential for determining environmental flows in water plans
Abstract
Traditional Ecological Knowledge ('TEK') in water has survived millennia, yet this knowledge remains poorly understood and utilised in Australia's water planning and management. Recent nation-wide water reform recognises Indigenous interests in water; it also confirms the importance of providing for 'environmental water' in water plans. This article proposes that there are significant, untapped interactions between these two policy developments: namely, that TEK can play a role in the determination of environmental outcomes in water planning. This is significant for Queensland, where traditional Indigenous values in water are to be provided for 'by ensuring there are sufficient environmental flows'. By reference to Queensland's Water Act 2000 and the Water Resource (Mitchell) Plan 2007 (Qld), this article addresses how Indigenous values are currently (un)represented in the determination of environmental flows. The article concludes by suggesting solutions for overcoming cultural and institutional barriers to the incorporation of old knowledge in freshwater management. Despite these barriers, Queensland is currently well-positioned to move towards genuine collaborative water planning and management with Indigenous communities.
... Additionally we need to direct effort to understanding Indigenous modes of water governance and their articulation with those of the nation state, where governance is defined as the 'means, including processes and institutions, through which collective goals are chosen, decisions are made, and action is taken to achieve the chosen goals' (Cosens & Chaffin 2016, 86). The ability of environmental water reference groups or multi-stakeholder advisory panels to acknowledge and respond to Indigenous claims and aspirations would be one interesting area for further research, for example (Cranney and Tan 2011). ...
... As a result of the procedural turn described above, research on participatory and collaborative approaches to water planning and management has been a growing topic of interest. This is evident in the literature that focuses specifically on collaboration involving Indigenous peoples (Hughey et al. 2017;Simms et al. 2016;von de Porten and Lou 2014;Maclean and Bana Yarralji Bubu Inc 2015;Ayre and MacKenzie 2013;Cranney and Tan 2011). Research on water planning in a number of regions of Australia has been designed to facilitate group processes in ways that promote exchange of understanding, encourage deliberation, build trust and deal with conflict between members and the government (see Tan et al. 2010;Straton et al. 2011;Jackson et al. 2012;Jackson et al. 2015;Ayre et al. 2018). ...
... Hill et al. 2012;Louis 2007). Within this work, authors note that until recently there has been little interest from aquatic ecologists in Indigenous ecological knowledge (Crook et al. 2016) and it is seldom, if ever, used as a source of knowledge in the determination of environmental flow requirements (Finn and Jackson 2011;Cranney and Tan 2011). Building trust and establishing legitimacy in environmental water management will require that the research sector address this shortcoming as a matter of priority. ...
This paper positions legitimacy and trust within a post-colonial theoretical frame, challenging the fundamentals of Australia's water governance system as well as the presumptions of neutrality that underpin liberal water management principles of participation and inclusion. In a settler colonial society like Australia that until very recently excluded Indigenous people from all forms of water governance, there are very significant questions to be asked about legitimacy and trust in its water regulatory regimes, guiding policy directions and the fairness of the outcomes generated by its institutions. The paper describes attempts to build cross-cultural collaborative research and management partnerships in the environmental water sector and points to formal agreements as a mechanism through which parties, including governments, can negotiate rules governing legitimacy. As an expression of self-determination and recognition of the legitimacy of Indigenous modes of governance, agreements represent a marked improvement on the exclusionary legal, policy and knowledge-production processes that have shaped our current arrangements.
... Few experts reported more than 5 years' experience with a reach, which may be insufficient to assess the frequency of flow events that might sustain hydrophytes in what might otherwise appear to be an ephemeral system. Given the long-term perspective required to understand streamflow duration, traditional ecological and hydrologic knowledge may be especially important in verifying streamflow duration classes (e.g., [112][113][114][115][116]). ...
Citation: Mazor, R.D.; Topping, B.J.; Nadeau, T.-L.; Fritz, K.M.; Kelso, J.E.; Harrington, R.A.; Beck, W.S.; McCune, K.S.; Allen, A.O.; Leidy, R.; et al. Implementing an Operational Framework to Develop a Streamflow Duration Assessment Method: A Case Study from the Arid West United States. Water 2021, 13, 3310. Abstract: Streamflow duration information underpins many management decisions. However, hydrologic data are rarely available where needed. Rapid streamflow duration assessment methods (SDAMs) classify reaches based on indicators that are measured in a single brief visit. We evaluated a proposed framework for developing SDAMs to develop an SDAM for the Arid West United States that can classify reaches as perennial, intermittent, or ephemeral. We identified 41 candidate biological, geomorphological, and hydrological indicators of streamflow duration in a literature review, evaluated them for a number of desirable criteria (e.g., defensibility and consistency), and measured 21 of them at 89 reaches with known flow durations. We selected metrics for the SDAM based on their ability to discriminate among flow duration classes in analyses of variance, as well as their importance in a random forest model to predict streamflow duration. This approach resulted in a "beta" SDAM that uses five biological indicators. It could discriminate between ephemeral and non-ephemeral reaches with 81% accuracy, but only 56% accuracy when distinguishing 3 classes. A final method will be developed following expanded data collection. This Arid West study demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach and paves the way for more efficient development of scientifically informed SDAMs.
... From within the field of water management there has been much interest in collaboration as a process that improves planning practice and facilitates more equitable outcomes (Tan, Bowmer, and Baldwin 2012). There is a growing number of accounts that focus specifically on collaboration involving Indigenous peoples (Hughey, Jacobson, and Smith 2017;Simms et al. 2016;von der Porten 2013;Maclean and Bana Yarralji Bubu Inc 2014;Ayre and Mackenzie 2013;Cranney and Tan 2011;Jackson 2019). According to Jackson (2019), in a number of regions of Australia research projects have been designed to facilitate group processes in ways that promote exchange of understanding, encourage deliberation, build trust and deal with conflict between members of Indigenous groups, government agencies and others (see Tan et al. 2010;Jackson and Douglas 2015;Ayre, Wallis, and Daniell 2018). ...
The Rainbow Snake is a universal Indigenous Australian living creature responsible for the creation and protection of waterways. Countless generations of traditional owners have cared for the sacred ancestral being; it is a spiritual guardian. The ancient creation songs and stories shared across the continent create meaning and purpose for our collective responsibility in managing the health and survival of the rivers, wetlands, springs, billabongs, floodplains and soaks. This chapter presents an insider view about how to promote remote Aboriginal people’s wellbeing through a co-operative regional earth-centred governance model. The story reveals a powerful policy and investment approach to the planning and development of regional governance and showcases the unique cultural and environmental values of the Fitzroy River, and its Indigenous people as having local, national and international significance. The central theme is the responsibility of Indigenous leaders to facilitate knowledge building, which requires sharing a deeper understanding of continuing colonisation and the collective responsibility, as Australians, for managing water.
... From within the field of water management there has been much interest in collaboration as a process that improves planning practice and facilitates more equitable outcomes (Tan, Bowmer, and Baldwin 2012). There is a growing number of accounts that focus specifically on collaboration involving Indigenous peoples (Hughey, Jacobson, and Smith 2017;Simms et al. 2016;von der Porten 2013;Maclean and Bana Yarralji Bubu Inc 2014;Ayre and Mackenzie 2013;Cranney and Tan 2011;Jackson 2019). According to Jackson (2019), in a number of regions of Australia research projects have been designed to facilitate group processes in ways that promote exchange of understanding, encourage deliberation, build trust and deal with conflict between members of Indigenous groups, government agencies and others (see Tan et al. 2010;Jackson and Douglas 2015;Ayre, Wallis, and Daniell 2018). ...
In 2016, Traditional Owners came together to discuss their collective vision for the Martuwarra, expressed in the Fitzroy River Declaration. Traditional Owners established the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council (MFRC) as a collective governance model to maintain the spiritual, cultural and environmental health of the catchment. Traditional Owners advocate a collaborative approach for an inclusive water governance model and catchment management plan. The MFRC advocates the need to establish a Fitzroy River Catchment Authority as a statutory body to monitor and regulate potential cumulative impacts from development. The Authority needs to be inclusive of all stakeholders and ensure that there is informed consent in decisions regarding development. This article articulates a local critique of water resource development and presents an alternative model of governance developed by Indigenous leaders of the West Kimberley.
... databases, registries, etc.). There is the form in which information exists, not only as scientific data and modelling but in other epistemic models, such as Aboriginal knowledge systems (Marshall 2014;Cranney and Tan 2011). Finally, there are governance and institutional issues, such as what bodies should hold information, what protocols govern it, and how are systems to be resourced. ...
Broad public participation in water resources management is necessitated by strong public good qualities. Nevertheless, it is only a relatively recent phenomenon in Australia. Government and commercial/industrial hegemony over water resources is predominant. The procedural vehicles for public participation in Australian water governance have been consultation and litigation. Both exhibit limitations. Consultation represents an administrative and discretionary approach to involvement; flexible, widely used, but lacking in policy direction and sophistication. This chapter discusses consultation as a method of participation generally as well as in the specific circumstances of Aboriginal engagement. Adjudicative approaches benefit from an established model of judicial practice, including reasoned outcomes and methods of inquiry, but are infrequently used in Australia, whether in civil litigation or in administrative decision-making. Each procedural framework presents possible pathways to widen community engagement in management of water as a crucial public resource. Lessons from the Australia experience of public participation in water governance are identified across both consultative and adjudicative modes.
... Email: sue.jackson@griffith.edu.au 436 S. Jackson and M. Barber This work, and the recent work of others researching this area in Australia (Altman, 2004;Altman & Branchut, 2008;Behrendt & Thompson, 2004;Cranney & Tan, 2011;Weir, 2009), describes the institutions and negotiating arenas through which indigenous peoples seek to establish the legitimacy of their water-related values, ethics and practices and to define, increase or influence their access to water. All these authors observe a high degree of contestation between indigenous and non-indigenous people over key water management institutions, particularly over property rights and water resource development scenarios during a period of rapid governance transformation (Altman, 2004;Bark et al., 2012;Jackson, 2011;Morgan, Strelein, & Weir, 2004;Weir, 2009). ...
This paper details indigenous Australian water values and interests, highlights progress towards improved distributive outcomes from water planning and analyses the remaining challenges in meeting indigenous aspirations for cultural recognition. It describes the significance of water to indigenous people living in the Roper River area of Australia's Northern Territory, reports on innovations in water allocation planning processes aimed at accommodating that significance, and analyses the implications of this case study for water planning generally. We describe rich cultural and historical connections with water places, protocols governing human conduct towards water, custodial assertions regarding the need for “water for the country”, distinctive values relating to riparian vegetation, and claims of ownership and economic rights in contemporary water allocations. Current water planning objectives such as sustainable development, protection for groundwater-dependent ecosystems, and protection of indigenous values accord with contemporary indigenous perspectives in the Roper, and in a national first, the local water plan specifically proposes reserving a significant water allocation for commercial use by indigenous people. Yet that allocation is seen as unjust from a local perspective, and further analysis demonstrates a range of other limitations: the scale and boundedness of the demarcated plan area, the neglect of riparian vegetation management, insufficient resourcing of local indigenous capacity, mismatches in planning and local governance structures, and the broader question of whether a rationalist planning process can simultaneously advance indigenous claims for recognition, equity in distributions and parity in participation.
... Indigenous knowledge, values, and contemporary practices can contribute to environmental restoration and management (Baker and Davies, 2001). Despite the expectations of the NWI, Indigenous knowledge is currently under-utilised in water resource assessments and planning, particularly environmental flow studies (Cranney and Tan, 2011). The National Water Commission is of the view that if water planning can recognise Indigenous hydrological knowledge it may assist in building the capacity of Indigenous leaders to participate in water planning, policy and management (2011). ...
Indigenous rights, values and interests relating to water have been identified by Australia's National Water Commission as a national priority area, requiring greater understanding, research attention and government action. Yet Indigenous water values are rarely addressed in water planning, despite objectives in national policy requiring Indigenous participation and the identification of Indigenous social, spiritual and customary values in water plans. Water planners are presently equipped with a very limited number of engagement tools tailored to the water resource management context to redress the historical neglect of Indigenous interests. In an Australian research project focused on water planning, seven participatory planning tools were employed in three Australian case studies with different social and hydrological characteristics to improve the way in which Indigenous values are elicited and incorporated and to enhance the status of Indigenous knowledge in water planning. The results from the two Murray Darling Basin (MDB) case studies reveal the many ways in which Indigenous values have been adversely affected by recent water resource developments and concomitant water scarcity. In the third case on the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory, where land title to the entire water planning area is vested in Indigenous traditional owners, methods were refined to ensure engagement and generate capacity to manage the development of a solely Indigenous-owned, first-generation Water Management Strategy, in collaboration with a range of stakeholders. This paper describes the needs and aspirations of Indigenous people, the engagement strategies employed to elicit Indigenous knowledge, assess Indigenous values, and incorporate the results into three developing water plans. In addition, it outlines a set of general principles to guide water planning in other regions and thereby to improve Indigenous access to water.
The cumulative and detailed knowledge about the present and past ecological systems is “traditional ecological knowledge” (TEK). TEK in water is to be provided for by guaranteeing environmental flow sufficiency. Environmental flow in terms of fish habitat is the minimum flow required to breed fish species and their corresponding environmental condition. The Pandoh Hydropower project in the Mandi District was constructed in 1977 by obstructing the flow of the Beas River. This in turn causes the natural free-flowing flow to get altered, leading to a poor fish ecosystem. To mitigate the impact, the maintenance of environmental flow has been proposed. The percentage of the environmental flow to be maintained is still debatable. The research work focuses on evaluating the impact of a hydropower project on the aquatic ecosystem. The environmental flow has been suggested as the mitigation measure. The hydraulic-habitat approach has been used to calculate the required environmental flow for a healthy aquatic ecosystem. The keystone species for this study purpose is rainbow trout. The environmental flow required for the rainbow trout will be taken environmental flow for a healthy ecosystem. The percentage of the environmental flow which is maintained isn’t sufficient as per the results. Hence based on the Traditional Ecological Knowledge, the percentage of the environmental flow is proposed as 20–25% of the average lean season flow to enhance the aquatic biodiversity.KeywordsTraditional ecological knowledgeHEC-EFMEnvironmental flowFish speciesImpact assessment
Throughout history, many water conservation and management strategies have been employed, but only a few have proved successful. Stepwells were one such effective water management technologies used in India. Stepwells were constructed based on their geographical and topographical suitability, which revealed socio-cultural behaviors and beliefs. They form a unique, efficient system of hydraulic engineering that demonstrates the region’s traditional understanding of the sustainable use and management of its land, water, and agricultural biodiversity. Ancient water harvesting techniques integrated stepwells into agricultural and irrigation networks using prefabricated structures, to allow open channel flow, networked with surface water bodies. They demonstrated the use of Persian wheels, non-mechanized farm machinery, other agricultural implements, etc., and their structure utilized a vast array of local building materials, including granite, marble, sandstone, bricks, lime, mud, wood, etc. The utilization of agricultural wastes, such as rice husk, in the production of lakhori bricks is strongly associated with circular economy principles. They not only communicated and guided communities regarding water management and cleaner production, but also revealed historic knowledge regarding how ancient societies achieved social-ecological resilience. In addition to that, in almost all types of stepwells, aesthetics and ornamentation played an important role and served as a rich source of history to disseminate knowledge of governance, political ideas, social practices and lifestyle. Just a few studies on these stepwells have been published and they have generally focused on their history or on the construction materials of a specific stepwell, rather than offering a wide perspective. This review article will explore the scientific, architectural, artistic, and functional dimensions of all major stepwells in India that have either disappeared or lost their relevance owing to expanding human population and environmental stress. Additionally, this will provide an opportunity to rethink modern water engineering systems and redesign water infrastructure with less negative environmental impacts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and ensure water for all.
Indigenous Water Rights in Law and Regulation - by Elizabeth Jane Macpherson August 2019
Indigenous Water Rights in Law and Regulation - by Elizabeth Jane Macpherson August 2019
Cambridge Core - Social and Cultural Anthropology - Indigenous Water Rights in Law and Regulation - by Elizabeth Jane Macpherson
In this article, we analyze the disparity in access to water resources between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, the regional differences in the effectiveness of indigenous strategies to assert and negotiate their interests in this reform process and the consequent regional disparity in indigenous water rights recognized or contemplated in policy and at law. We provide a case study of New South Wales' (hereafter NSW) only Cultural Access Licence held by the Nari Nari Tribal Council of Hay to exemplify trends in the recognition of indigenous water rights. This case study raises questions not only about the efficacy of 'cultural' entitlements but also matters of equity, particularly the transaction costs that indigenous groups may bear when accessing water under this special measure. In light of these limitations, we ask whether a group like the Nari Nari Tribal Council could satisfy their diverse and evolving water management strategies by alternate means or must they and other indigenous groups rely upon an obscure and restrictive form of entitlement that privileges pre-colonial practices? Two distinct possibilities are environmental water allocations and commercially valuable tradeable licences. For either to work, governments would need to commit to reallocating entitlements to indigenous people with direct purchase of entitlements from willing sellers being the least contentious. Strategies that seek indigenous participation in mainstream environmental water management along with substantive water property rights to underpin economic activity are more likely to result in a reallocation of water to meet the needs of indigenous populations than 'cultural' entitlements.
Using insights from material culture studies to analyse new data, this paper builds on social-historical studies of plastics and literature in the sociology of technology, as well as some design literature to elucidate the 'fine grain' of consumers' relationships with 'artificial' materials. Whereas the literature takes plastic to operate as a signifier of modern supremacy over nature or of a fugitive and protean post-modernity, consumers' perceptions of these qualities are accompanied by a more physical relationship to the materials. Whereas there is evidence that consumers appreciate plastics' potential for technical mastery, this cultural knowledge is always accompanied by knowledge gained by direct physical interaction with the materials, which in turn has affective consequences.
Indigenous people have a significant stake in water resource management arising from customary socioecological relationships, in which water is a highly valued element or property, and also from customary and contemporary management practice. In many regions of Australia, Indigenous people are also significant landowners, with rights to aquatic, living resources. Whilst rivers and wetlands are now being recognised as legitimate 'users' of water, Indigenous interests in water allocation processes, including their ecological knowledge, have tended to be neglected. In a small number of Australian catchments, incipient water allocation processes are now endeavouring to acknowledge and protect Indigenous 'cultural values' of water and waterdependent ecosystems. Where north Australian Indigenous values have been considered, there has been a tendency to assume that a surrogate environmental flow will address cultural requirements. This paper describes the nature of Indigenous values in a specific region of the Northern Territory undergoing intensive natural resource management planning. I argue that the subjective, intangible and highly distinct values underpinning Indigenous people's relationships to water do not easily translate into Western environmental management frameworks, which have a utilitarian focus, and are highly reliant on objectification, quantification (e.g. environmental flows) and monetary valuations as a basis for resource allocation, regulation and management.
This paper outlines some of the theoretical developments in cultural anthropology that have been particularly useful in elucidating human engagements with land and resources. It examines some of the meanings and values encoded in water by a range of water using groups along the Mitchell River in northern Queensland, and their diverse ideas of what constitutes environmental ‘productivity’. Exploring some of the cultural and sub-cultural beliefs and practices within the catchment area, it considers how these intersect with ecological issues; social issues; and with local conflicts over the ownership, control and management of water.
Summary Indigenous people demonstrably lived along rivers and around lakes and wetlands of Australia's Murray-Darling Basin in pre-European times. Waterways were, and continue to be, of major significance to the society and culture of Aboriginal peoples throughout Australia. Historically, they exploited most of the fauna – from mussels and crayfish, to fish and birds – and either ate, or used for other purposes, many species of aquatic plants. Such practices placed them in the role of environmental modifiers, a role played by all human groups from both past and present. They built sophisticated fish traps, cut gaps in river banks to allow fish to move on to floodplains, and there is evidence that they practised a form of fish culture by creating small impoundments in which small fish could live and grow in normally ephemeral tributary streams away from predatory larger fish. Knowledge of the numbers of Aboriginal people inhabiting the riverine regions of the Murray-Darling Basin are sketchy, but at times large groups congregated for cultural reasons, facilitating fishing with extensively engineered fish traps, such as that at Brewarrina, on the Barwon River in New South Wales. At other times, densities may have been about 0.5 person per river kilometre, although this was certainly not evenly distributed and the calculation postdated deaths from smallpox. From archaeological and anthropological evidence, aquatic fauna and flora would have constituted between about 30% and 100% of the diets of Indigenous people historically, depending on season and location. As such, Indigenous people were very much a part of the ecology of aquatic ecosystems and their effects may have been profound. Despite this, their role in influencing these ecosystems has largely been ignored by contemporary freshwater ecologists and managers. Current management practices do not seem to have considered the loss of this component of riverine ecosystems, and there is little debate about how the historical part that Indigenous people played in shaping these systems and their biota might be incorporated into management generally.
The efforts to involve Aboriginal people in the development of a management plan for a newly created World Heritage Area (WHA) in northern Queensland are examined. Although the management agency expended considerable effort to encourage the participation of local Aboriginal people, the program was flawed and served to marginalise some Aboriginal groups from the management of their traditional lands. The management agency failed to understand the nature of contemporary and traditional Aboriginal social organisation. Insensitivity to the diverse nature of Aboriginal social organisation, and ignorance of the complexity of Aboriginal representation, rendered the interests of some groups with traditional interests invisible to the management agency. Because the management agency uncritically accepted the claims to a mandate for regional representation by one Aboriginal lobby group, this group was able to assume a dominant position in liaising with the management agency.
Whereas rational choice theory predicts that harvesting in resource management situations is completely determined by greed, being the dominant choice, the GEF hypothesis predicts that although individuals are greedy (G), their greed is constrained by two other motives: the desire to use the resource efficiently (E) and the desire to realize fairness (F), referring to equal outcomes for all participants. The GEF hypothesis was corroborated by results from several computer-controlled experiments. It can account for (a) the pattern of individual responses to choices made by other group members, the impact of (b) environmental uncertainty and (c) social uncertainty, and (d) the conditions under which freedom of access is abandoned in favor of leadership.
People have been living on the Australian continent for at least 40 000 years, possibly longer. Many significant environmental changes in climate, flora and fauna have occurred during that period of human occupation. Availability of water has been a constant concern. It was sought after, of necessity, due to the fairly consistent low precipitation rate throughout the continent, both along the coast, as well as inland to the very arid, dry desert area. From earliest times, ingenious methods of water resources exploitation were practised. There are significant examples of fish and eel trap systems in western Victoria. Another important fish trap exists at Brewarrina, in New South Wales. Coastal fish traps are in existence along many suitable seaboard locations, from the east coast to the west. Water, retained in naturally occurring rock pools, was extensively exploited. An important source of water, particularly in the arid inland was from the so called native wells. These wells sustained a great number of the white explorers in the 1840s to 1880s, amongst them Ludwig Leichhardt and Ernest Giles. Some interesting native wells, in former Aboriginal occupation sites, have even been traced in the Simpson Desert. The construction of the hydraulic structures which have remained in existence were carried out using simple tools and limited materials. A culture existed with the technical sophistication, ingenuity and skills to satisfy the water needs of the people in the environment of an arid continent over several thousand years.
Markets in terms of tradeable water or pollution rights, are increasingly being offered as rational solutions for environmental problems. The rational pursuit of personal gain through trading is assumed to promote increased efficiency in resource use and promote a reduction in the negative aspects of the resource use. The social and distributive effects of the introduction of markets and their rules and operations have received little concerted study and examination. In this paper the role of justice considerations in the development of economically rational environmental decision making will be addressed through some case studies of rural water markets and urban water markets in Australia.
The outlook for the persistence of indigenous cultural values looks dim, based on historical trends, but recent revitalization efforts point to a more complicated future than a steady decline of diversity. The most powerful obstacle to the viability of indigenous values is the promotion of Western-style economic development initiatives that seldom acknowledge the legitimacy of values outside the materialist-rational paradigm. The evolution of more socially and environmentally oriented ‘progressive’ development policies renders Western values even more beguiling. A future in which indigenous values can survive and perhaps thrive will depend on pro-active efforts among indigenous groups to define their own development futures reflecting their own cultural values.
Economic development for remote Indigenous communities cannot be understood unless the relative importance of customary activity, potentially enhanced by native title legal rights in resources, is recognised. The present article uses a three-sector hybrid economy framework, rather than the usual two-sector private (or market) and public (or state) model to more accurately depict the Indigenous economy. Examples are provided of the actual and potential significance of the customary sector of the hybrid economy. Focusing on the concepts of property and institutions, it is demonstrated that significant local, regional, and national benefits are generated by the Indigenous hybrid economy. A role is foreshadowed for resource economists and the New Institutional Economics in quantifying these benefits, including positive externalities, so that they might be more actively supported by the state. Copyright Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc. and Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004.