Global water crises are, finally, near the top of the agendas at the United Nations and at multilateral initiatives and organizations. A social sciences– and humanities-informed emerging literature that we call Heterodox Thinking offers alternatives to much of the current decision-making on water. Rooted in water economics, values, and governance, Heterodox Thinking comprises developments in nonmarket valuation, systems thinking, risk assessments and mitigation, infrastructure investments, and understanding injustices and relationality. It is characterized by the Three Ps: People (e.g., who has voice and power and who does not), Place (e.g., locally informed and justice-based), and Planet (e.g., system interconnections, risks, and ecological and nonhuman considerations). At its best, Heterodox Thinking is informed by on-the-ground evidence and multiple disciplines and knowledge, and it seeks to value water, expose power imbalances, support human rights and well-being, and mitigate systemic risks. If effectively operationalized, it can deliver more equitable, risk-mitigated, and sustainable responses to the many different and localized water crises.

Coastal and marine habitat degradation threatens recreational fisheries and associated ecosystem services globally, particularly through the loss of seagrass meadows. This study uses complementary revealed- and stated-preference evidence to estimate current recreational use values and prospective restoration values for marine recreational fishing. Using a survey of 1,260 recreational fishers in South Australia, we estimate a standard travel cost model to recover current use values, and a contingent valuation model to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for seagrass restoration. Results indicate a mean annual consumer surplus of approximately AUD3,451 per angler (AUD130 per trip). Stated WTP for restoration was positive and spatially heterogeneous, with mean estimates ranging from AUD65 to AUD119. These findings help inform marine habitat restoration, recreational fisheries management, and the appraisal of seagrass-related environmental investments.

Natural capital accounting (NCA) provides a systematic framework to integrate broader economic and environmental data in a way that aligns with traditional financial accounting. This fuller set of information allows organisations to better manage their environmental risks and dependencies. However, NCA adoption remains limited and fragmented in the forestry sector. We utilise semi-structured interviews as part of an Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to examine the incentives and barriers faced by public and private forestry organisations in adopting NCA. This paper contributes to forestry management by querying the reasons for these gaps in adoption, as well as the barriers preventing adoption and utilisation of NCA at the organisational scale. We base our study in Tasmania, Australia, using its forest management system as a case study. We find that a wide range of Tasmanian organisations perceive clear incentives for adoption. Among them, recognised reporting approaches, access to financial markets and investment opportunities, additional data to inform decision-making, as well as new evidence to support social licence to operate. However, significant barriers exist, such as lack of baseline data, limited internal capacity and often ambiguous guidance on account compilation. These barriers could be addressed through greater standardisation of existing NCA frameworks, establishing accounting standards for natural capital, and increased private-public sector collaboration. Addressing these barriers could enable the adoption of NCA at scale, enhancing the management of natural resources.

Rapid growth in tourism to Antarctica has led the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties to launch a multi-year process to develop a framework for managing Antarctic tourism. Managing tourism in this region poses particular challenges, given the remoteness, ecological sensitivity and complex institutional systems. Approximately 65% of the current 120,000+ Antarctic cruise tourists travel on 'expedition' vessels that allow landfall. Landings are concentrated in relatively few locations, with potential for localised impacts. All vessels, including larger 'cruise-only' vessels that do not land passengers, generate carbon emissions, thus indirectly impacting the region. Using historical data, we forecast that tourist numbers could quadruple from current levels in ten years, with the largest growth occurring within the 'landed' sector. With these forecasts in mind, we consider a variety of price-based, quantity-based, and 'market-friction' economic instruments and assess their potential effectiveness (curtailing impacts or slowing growth in landings) and their potential acceptability/suitability (within existing governance systems) in this unique place. Our analysis suggests that it may be possible to forestall impacts by complementing existing regulations and guidelines with a combination of quantity-based instruments, nudging, and tighter certification. There are, nonetheless, practical difficulties, including the contrasting interests, values and political priorities of the twenty-nine Consultative Parties.

Using a discrete choice experiment, owner occupants of non-apartment dwellings in Victoria, Australia were asked to evaluate alternative electricity contracts with features including increased renewables, different technologies, and demand-side management policies. We assert that a respondent’s financial literacy is correlated with whether they perceive the contract features as investments. To test this, respondents completed a financial literacy quiz, with their corresponding scores used as an indicator of financial literacy. These scores were incorporated within a hybrid mixed logit model to evaluate whether financial literacy explains the variation in choices. Results indicate that respondents with higher levels of financial literacy had a higher willingness to pay for the contract features. This case study is relevant for an environment of rising electricity prices and the transition to greater reliance on renewables. JEL Classification: Q40, Q41, Q51

The wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax) is the largest bird of prey in Australia. It has a unique Tasmanian subspecies (Aquila audax fleayi), which is listed as endangered. Conservation efforts are hampered by the Tasmanian subspecies being notoriously shy breeders that can easily be disturbed by human activity such as forestry, resulting in nest abandonment. Conservation efforts are currently focussed on restricting forestry activities around nesting sites. Other potential policies could target the use of rat poisons (especially single-dose, second generation rat poisons) which have the potential to bio-accumulate as wedge-tailed eagles are known to scavenge. Evaluating the potential benefits of these conservation strategies has been complicated by recent research which suggests that the two subspecies are genetically similar, and therefore the species' genome is not at risk of endangerment. This impacts the perceived 'uniqueness' of the Tasmanian subspecies. A research question that emerges from this conservation problem is whether respondents value conservation efforts differently depending on whether the subspecies is perceived as 'unique', with either differences or the similarities of the subspecies emphasised in a stated preference survey. We sample south-eastern states of mainland Australia (New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia) as well as the island state of Tasmania to investigate differences in preferences across states based on proximity to the target species. The results suggest a positive willingness to pay for expanding reserve areas around nests, restricting forestry activity in proximity to nests, and restricting rat poisons, with some variability across mainland states relative to Tasmania.

Soil health is declining globally, with farmers typically receiving weak financial incentives to maintain or improve soil quality. Increasing consumer awareness of the importance of soil health could stimulate demand for products made using soil stewardship, which would then flow on to demand at the farmgate. However, there is a need to communicate with consumers about soil to motivate them to pay for products grown or produced using soil stewardship. The study aims to develop a conceptual model of how to stimulate consumer willingness to pay for soil stewardship and build consumer profiles to inform social marketing campaigns. We used an exploratory approach employing a focus group methodology. Five focus groups of participants (n = 36) took place in Australia (New South Wales and Tasmania). Data were analysed using thematic analysis and qualitative segmentation analysis. Our qualitative findings confirmed our initial conceptual model, but the findings suggest the model should be extended to include consumer trust through certification. Four potential market segments were identified and profiled based on the different concerns of consumers. Connecting consumers and soil is vital to incentivise producers to look after their soil, but simply educating consumers about the importance of soil may be insufficient to lead to change. Our conceptual model may be used to inform social marketing campaigns and stimulate further research.

With the rapid uptake in renewable energy there are emerging risks for countries that rapidly displace baseload generation with intermittent sources. Whilst these risks can be mitigated with storage technologies, the cost to do so, is ultimately passed onto households in the form of higher electricity bills. We use a discrete choice experiment to explore some of the potential trade-offs households might be willing to consider in order to experience lower bill increases including delaying electricity infrastructure investments as well as demand-side management policies. Respondents were asked to evaluate alternative electricity contracts with lower cost increases, delayed renewable and battery storage investments and the potential imposition of consumption limits. We also explore how household risk attitudes explain differences in compensation required within a mixed logit model. Our results suggest that households which are highly risk-averse may require more compensation.

Abstract Antarctica and the Southern Ocean (A&SO) has a unique environment that plays an important role in the Earth’s life-support systems. It has no indigenous human population but hosts around 5000 researchers and is visited by more than 100 000 tourists per year. In this paper, we describe the biophysical processes that create the region’s ecosystem services, outlining their related governance systems within the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), and show the global distribution of the ecosystem service beneficiaries. These services clearly support populations across the world but are endangered by anthropogenic activities, which the current place-based ATS is not empowered to control. We discuss whether it is possible to use insights from Elinor Ostrom’s work on managing the commons, including her eight core design principles and the idea of Common Asset Trusts, to better harness efforts to protect ALL of the region’s ecosystem services. We note that many existing arrangements associated with the ATS are already well-aligned with Ostrom’s design principles but need to be expanded to better protect the globally important ecosystem services produced by A&SO.

Globally, the finfish aquaculture industry has experienced a decline in social acceptance, as the industry has been linked to coastal and marine environmental impacts. The causality, magnitude and intensity of these impacts are contested and controversial. To address these social concerns and perceptions, new lower-impact forms of production have been integrated in planning processes for the expansion of the salmon industry. This paper identifies a range of stakeholder views on coastal and marine ecosystem services associated with the expansion of salmon aquaculture using lower-impact forms of production in Tasmania, Australia. Stakeholder surveys combined with Q methodology interviews were used to capture stakeholders' 'subjectivities' or perspectives—described here as 'preferences'. The application of Q methodology identified three factors or perspectives—'utilitarian ecological', 'ecological primacy' and 'recreational amenity'—which explain the majority of the variance in stakeholder preferences. The 'utilitarian ecological' label accounted for the largest cluster of stakeholders' preferences, while the 'ecological primacy' and 'recreational amenity' perspectives accounted for small subsets of stakeholder preferences. Q methodology was an effective approach for identifying the range of stakeholder preferences for and the relative importance of ecosystem services in these coastal and marine environs. Environmental attributes such as seabed health and water quality were identified as being the most important regulating and supporting coastal and marine ecosystem services, followed by the subsequent flow of benefits to regional communities through employment in the Q results.

ntarctica and the Southern Ocean provide numerous ecosystem services that benefit people globally, but many are ‘invisible’ to markets and to some decision makers. A subset of these services — Antarctic tourism, commercial fisheries, and a suite of inter-related regulating services — are conservatively valued at ~US $180 billion annually, highlighting their importance.

Plastic is the most pervasive type of marine litter and is found in all of the world's oceans and seas, even in remote areas far from human activities. In Australia, evidence has demonstrated that plastic pollution in the oceans is a serious threat to marine life and the marine environment more generally. In response to the adverse effects of marine plastic pollution, the Australian Commonwealth and state government's focus on plastics has shifted from a linear ‘take-make-dispose-of’ economy to a more circular economy approach. This study identifies different policy strategies that align with the 4R framework (Reduce, Recycle or Reuse and Recover) of a circular economy for plastics and provides estimates of the public's Willingness to Pay (WTP) for the reduction of plastics in marine waters. The results, from our Australian case study, indicate a preference for Redesigning and Recovering approaches over Recycling or Reuse policies. Results indicate a WTP of $7.52 to $23.50 for attributes based upon redesign and a $0.84 to $0.87 range for attributes based upon recovery at the household level. The findings of this study are useful for policy makers focused on the reduction of marine plastic pollution and strengthening a circular economy for plastics.

Microplastics are ubiquitous in marine environments and have been documented across all ocean compartments, especially surface waters, across the world. Even though several studies identify the presence of microplastics in the world’s five oceans, there remains an overt problem of large inconsistencies in their sampling, extraction, and consequent quantification. Despite the complexity of these methodologies, researchers have tried to explore microplastic abundance in ocean surface waters. Using a systematic review approach, a dataset was derived from 73 primary studies undertaken since the year 2010 following the Oslo and Paris Conventions (OSPAR) guidelines to monitor and harmonise marine debris. The results showed differences in the abundance and distribution of microplastics in surface waters across oceans. The overall concentration of microplastics in all five oceans ranged between 0.002 and 62.50 items/m3, with a mean abundance of 2.76 items/m3. The highest mean concentration of microplastics was found in the Atlantic (4.98 items/m3), while the least was observed in the Southern Ocean (0.04 items/m3). While challenging, this paper recommends harmonisation of the sampling, separation, and identification methods across the globe to aid in the design of the appropriate mitigation strategies for reducing marine plastic pollution.

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are key elements in the physical and biological Earth system. Human-induced climate change, and other human activities in the region, are leading to several potential interacting tipping points with major and irreversible consequences. Here, we examine eight potential physical, biological, chemical, and social Antarctic tipping points. These include ice sheets, ocean acidification, ocean circulation, species redistribution, invasive species, permafrost melting, local pollution, and the Antarctic Treaty System. We discuss the nature of each potential tipping point, its control variables, thresholds, timescales, and impacts, and focus on the potential for cumulative and cascading effects as a result of their interactions. The analysis provides substantial evidence of the need for more concerted and rapid action to limit climate change and to minimise the impacts of local human activities to avoid these cascading tipping points.

Ecosystem accounting is a systematic approach that combines environmental and economic data to track the full physical and monetary value of natural capital and can be applied at various spatial scales and for a range of purposes. Our main objective is to identify where and how ecosystem accounting has been applied in the specific context of forest resource management. We selected the System of Economic Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA) Ecosystem Accounting (EA) which is aligned with national accounting for our analysis. Our systematic literature review was conducted on publications between 2012 and 2023 that apply SEEA EA consistent methodology for forest ecosystems globally. We find the use of SEEA EA consistent ecosystem accounts in forestry have been limited and tends to occur where governmental and institutional support is available. Detailed analysis of forestry case studies identified gaps and challenges including the variation in which SEEA EA had been applied, limited number of ecosystem services reported, issues related to valuation, and a lack of industry adoption. The results of this review highlight the urgent need to make ecosystem accounting more achievable and accessible in the forest sector to ensure that quantifying forest natural capital is mainstreamed for decision and policy processes.

In response to the looming climate crisis, many countries are adopting technologies to reduce the accumulation of greenhouse gases. However, national energy policies are often multiobjective and resolution deeply divisive. The result is a policy trilemma between the energy mix and the trade-offs with other policy objectives, including cost and reliability. Utilising a discrete choice experiment (DCE), the objective of this study is to explore Australian household preferences for alternative electricity contracts containing features reflecting changes in future energy policy. The first set of features include investments in renewable generation and community-based energy storage. The second set of features reflect demand-side management policies, including installing smart meters and consumption limits being imposed on households during peak demand. Two versions of the DCE were developed to obtain both willingness to pay and willingness to accept estimates for the same features. In line with the literature, differences in the two sets of estimates were observed, with the willingness to accept estimates being statistically larger for some features. These dollar value measures can be used to support public policy decision-making - the choice of which depending on the context of the policy problem being considered.

In this study, we analyse how beliefs concerning environmental action influence choices in a stated preference survey on coastal water quality and marine habitat areas. Survey respondents were presented with a series of choice tasks featuring improvements in water clarity, reef health, seagrass area and a series of costs in the form of reallocated state budget against a baseline of no new improvements and no change in the budget. The reallocated budget scenario was used as it is likely to be realistic to respondents. Estimates of willingness to reallocate were obtained using a hybrid choice model which included the choice data, attitudinal data regarding support for environmental action and sociodemographic characteristics. Our results suggest that beliefs supporting environmental action influence the willingness to reallocate for attributes that change coastal water quality. A decision support tool for policy analysts was developed to illustrate how public support, as a probability of supporting reallocation, is shaped by beliefs and changes with sociodemographic characteristics.

Growth in offshore blue economies is predicted to accelerate as emerging food and energy production industries look to expand into these environments. Operating in novel environments for these industries inherently fosters uncertainty in outcomes generated by a complex suite of hazards, some of which are unknown prior to deployment. Faced with such uncertainty, a precautionary, flexible, and cross-disciplinary (integrated) approach is recommended to optimize the potential for hazards to be identified in a timely, comprehensive, and robust manner, and mitigated. However, relevant disciplines – such as aquaculture production, marine engineering, and marine renewable energy design, and associated interactions with society and the environment – often evolve with their siloed techniques and lexicons. Here we first provide an overview of selected discipline-specific approaches to hazard analysis as a first step in a pathway that can generate a holistic synthesis of hazards to and from multiple emerging sectors in novel environments. Despite challenges of applying these individual methods to cross-disciplinary projects for emerging industries, we then identify where disciplines share methodological approaches and where opportunities exist to develop integrated methods. With a growing focus on sustainable economic growth and optimizing the use of ocean space through multi-use, our review highlighted that the emerging offshore Blue Economy could benefit from the development of a flexible, integrated approach to identify and assess hazards in a comprehensive, robust and useful manner for successful planning, development, and operations.