Abstract
The degradation of Australia’s semi-arid rangelands is generally recognised to be both widespread in scale and ongoing. This degradation is seen to be the source of significant economic and social losses. However, concerted action by landholders to address this issue with on-ground works on any real scale has been restrained. This restraint may be partly due to a general perception that the characteristics of many restoration technologies would render them uneconomic for adoption by private landholders. It may also be due to confusion as to what the objectives of restoring rangeland landscapes should ultimately be.
These issues are explored from the perspective of individual land mangers as opposed to the broader community. It is suggested that, in some cases, rangeland restoration options may be more economic than previously judged. Both the underlying context and processes involved with a given degradation problem need to be considered when assessments are to be made of the economic value of a given restoration technique. A clear vision for a given rangeland landscape is also argued to be a precursor for exploring integrated approaches to restoration management that might offer realistic potential for implementation.
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Macleod, N.D., Noble, J.C. (2001). Reconsidering the Economic Scope for Rehabilitating Degraded Australian Semi-Arid Rangelands — Issues of Context, Process and Integration. In: Conacher, A.J. (eds) Land Degradation. The GeoJournal Library, vol 58. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2033-5_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2033-5_18
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