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Given the large and increasing bushfire threat to lives and property in Australia, there is a need for economic evaluation of risk mitigation policies that can be implemented by governments and homeowners. Three broad policies applicable for existing at-risk communities are evaluated: expanded use of landscape-scale prescribed fire; home ignition zone treatment (bushfire defence sprinklers); and early evacuation when a bushfire is burning on extreme or catastrophic fire danger days. Early evacuation is the only option that yields net economic benefits relative to existing policy.

Given the large and increasing bushfire threat to lives and property in Australia, there is a need for economic evaluation of risk mitigation policies that can be implemented by governments and homeowners. Three broad policies applicable for existing at-risk communities are evaluated: expanded use of landscape-scale prescribed fire; home ignition zone treatment (bushfire defence sprinklers); and early evacuation when a bushfire is burning on extreme or catastrophic fire danger days. Early evacuation is the only option that yields net economic benefits relative to existing policy.

Provision of adequate and unbiased information is a prerequisite for contingent valuation. However, there remains substantial disagreement and lack of understanding regarding how information provided in the survey influences responses to valuation questions. In this study, we examine the effects of wording of the willingness-to-pay (WTP) statement (question framing), the level of information provided by the survey instrument (information framing), and prior exposure of respondents to information about the issue on WTP for a wildfire management program to reduce wildfire risk. Question framing had a statistically insignificant effect on WTP. On its own, information framing was a statistically insignificant determinant of WTP; however, became significant when prior exposure of respondents to information was accounted for. For all information framing levels considered in the study, respondents with greater prior exposure to information were found to have higher WTP than those with less prior exposure. Respondents used information provided in the survey to update their risk perceptions and WTP for the program, although the direction of change was conditional on their prior exposure to information. As the level of information provided by the survey increased, the WTP of respondents with alternative levels of prior exposure to information converged. This convergence supports calls from practitioners to better inform survey recipients about the good they are being asked to value. Our study suggests testing the level of agreement between respondents with differing levels of prior information may be desirable for increasing the level of confidence with which non-market valuation estimates may be used to support decision-making.

Presently, implementing the 2001 Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy, which requires fire management priorities to be set on the basis of maximising the market and non-market values to be conserved or enhanced, is extremely challenging because those charged with implementing the policy have limited information about the value that society places on non-market resources at risk. This paper considers the problem of accommodating non-market values affected by wildfire in social benefit-cost analysis. There are substantial gaps in scientific understanding about how the spatial and temporal provision of non-market values are affected by wildfire, and considerable challenges in evaluating social welfare change arising from specific wildfire events. This presents serious impediments to adapting price-based decision-support tools, such as the National Fire Management Analysis System, to meaningfully incorporate non-market values. An alternative decision-support framework is proposed that measures departure from the historic range and variability of ecological conditions for those non-market values that are particularly resistant to price-based analysis.

In this paper we consider the problem of accommodating indigenous cultural heritage values in resource assessment and valuation. We suggest a need for price-based approaches to valuation to be replaced by or complemented with quantitative constraints, reflecting the requirement that rights should not be violated.

Wik people on Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, aspire to economic independence. Commercial processing of native forest timbers is seen by Wik people as a culturally appropriate engine for economic development; however, much uncertainty surrounds their property rights to native forest timber. The granting of native title over some traditional Wik land in 2000 and 2004 was seen as a coup by Wik people, but some economists have argued that the inalienable and communal nature of native title is an obstacle to development in indigenous communities. An assessment of Wik property rights to timber resources reveals that a commercial forestry industry is consistent with their rights. In comparison with social and cultural factors, the inalienable and communal characteristics of native title are second-order development constraints for Wik people.