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About Graham Marshall
Graham is currently Research Fellow in Economics, Institutions and the Environment at the Institute for Rural Futures within the University of New England. He previously was an economist the NSW Department of Agriculture (including 1989‐1995 in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area), a lecturer in agricultural economics (1995-96), PhD researcher (2007-2001), and ARC Postdoctoral Fellow (2002-2005).
His experiences at Yanco leading a team of economists advising an industry‐based process of developing plans for managing irrigation salinity led him to explore the economic and policy implications of collaborative community based processes. This interest was pursued in PhD research for which he received the 2003 PhD Research Award from the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. His research continues along this path, including the ARC funded project ‘Institutional transitions to sustainable agriculture’ (2002-05), the CVCB/RIRDC‐funded ‘Nesting community‐based NRM for regional accountability and grassroots cooperation’ (2004-07), and the CERF funded ‘Improving economic accountability when using decentralised, collaborative approaches to environmental decisions’ (2007-10).
Particularly relevant for this adoption workshop have been econometric findings from the PhD and CVCB/RIRDC work demonstrating how farmers’ trust in community‐based structures, together with their propensity to act with reciprocity towards these structures, influences their adoption of conservation practices promoted by these structures. Relevant recent publications include Economics for Collaborative Environmental Management: Renegotiating the Commons (Earthscan, 2005), ‘Nesting, subsidiarity and community based environmental management beyond the local scale’ (International Journal of the Commons 2(1): 75-97), and Community Based Regional Delivery of Natural Resource Management: Building System-Wide Capacities to Promote Voluntary Adoption of Conservation Practices (RIRDC, in press).
View symposium presentation: What “Community” Means for Farmer Adoption of Conservation Practices? Some Logic and Evidence
Abstract
Australian governments continue to invest in community-based models of natural resource management (NRM), seeking to leverage greater farmer adoption of conservation practices than otherwise possible. These models have been understood mostly through a logic of extension, focusing on awareness, knowledge and attitudes. Graham will argue that a logic of collective action, focusing on trust and reciprocity in farmers' relationships with 'higher' levels, better explains role of community engagement in strengthening farmer adoption in this setting. He will support his argument with evidence from industry-based management of irrigation salinity in NSW, and regional NRM delivery in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.
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