An economic analysis of revegetation for dryland salinity control on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in South Australia

✍ Scribed by S. Hajkowicz; M. D. Young

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 447 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1085-3278
• DOI: 10.1002/ldr.527

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Dryland salinity is a major natural resource management problem imposing large economic and environmental costs in many countries throughout the world. The major cause of dryland salinity is the replacement of perennial native vegetation with annual crops and pastures. This results in greater amounts of water entering a groundwater system, watertable rise and the concentration of naturally occurring salts near the soil surface. Many consider that the best long‐term solution is the re‐establishment of high water use perennial vegetation through production systems such as agroforestry. This paper presents a benefit–cost analysis (BCA) of revegetation to control dryland salinity over a 20‐year period in South Australia. The results of the BCA indicate that market costs are likely to exceed market benefits for broad‐scale revegetation programmes. These results are driven by hydrogeological studies, which indicate that as much as 50 per cent of a ‘problem‐type’ catchment needs to be revegetated to save only 3 per cent of land from being salt affected. The conclusion is that revegetation programmes need to be highly targeted to areas of a catchment with large potential to control salinity, land that has minimal value for other uses and regions with high infrastructure and ecological value. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.