Perspectives on tradable development rights for ecosystem service protection: lessons from an Australian peri-urban region

Abstract

Competition for land between agriculture and urban uses is a global problem. Until recently, planners and policy makers have relied on regulatory ‘command and control’ planning approaches; however, there is growing interest in the use of market-based instruments to address natural resource management issues in complex and highly contested peri-urban environments. Tradable development rights are one type of market-based instrument. While tradable development rights have been used extensively in the United States, their application in Australia has been limited. Yet, in Australia, population growth and development in peri-urban areas is placing extensive pressure on natural resources and productive agricultural lands. These pressures are particularly acute in Australia's fastest growing metropolitan region, South East Queensland. By using a case study approach we explore stakeholder perspectives on the value of this tool to protect peri-urban landscape values. Whilst current planner and stakeholder perspectives suggest there is considerable support, there are substantial political, institutional, knowledge, resource and legislative barriers that need to be overcome before this tool can be a viable, realistic and acceptable option for land use planning in peri-urban regions such as South East Queensland.

Keywords:

• urban sprawl
• sustainability
• market based instruments
• environmental planning
• regulation

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Bruce Taylor, Ryan McAllister and Anthea Coggan for their support and comments which helped shape earlier versions of this paper. The contribution of the late Professor Geoff McDonald who co-supervised the original honours research project is also acknowledged. Finally, this research paper would not have been made possible without the valuable contributions from the key informants who participated in the semi-structured interviews.