Economic value of recreational fishing in Moreton Bay and the potential impact of the marine park rezoning

In 2009, the area of the Moreton Bay Marine Park was increased from 0.5 per cent of the Bay area to 16 per cent. During the planning process, opposition by commercial and recreational fishers alike was raised, arguing that loss of fishing grounds would lead to substantial loss in economic benefits. The commercial sector was compensated through a buyback of fishing effort, but the recreational sector received no compensation. In this paper, we develop a travel cost model to estimate the potential economic impact on the recreational sector from the marine park rezoning. The results suggest that, counter to initial claims, non-market recreational fishing benefits may have increased by between $1.3m and $2.5m a year, with a current total annual value of around $20m. Keywords: Travel cost model; Economic valuation; Moreton Bay Marine Park; Recreational fishing

Estimating the potential impact of entry fees for marine parks on dive tourism in South East Asia

Marine reserves are increasingly being established as a mechanism to protect marine biodiversity and sensitive habitats. As well as providing conservation benefits, marine reserves provide benefits to recreational scuba divers who dive within the reserve, as well as to recreational and commercial fishers outside the reserve through spill-over effects. To ensure benefits are being realised, management of marine reserves requires ongoing monitoring and surveillance. These are not costless, and many marine reserve managers impose an entry fee. In some countries, dive tourism is major income source to coastal industries, and a concern is that high entry fees may dissuade divers. In this paper, the price elasticity of demand for dive tourism in three countries in South East Asia – Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia – is estimated using a travel-cost model. From the model, the total non-market use value associated with diving in the area is estimated to be in the order of US$4.5 billion a year. The price elasticity of demand in the region is highly inelastic, such that increasing the cost of diving through a management levy would have little impact on total diver numbers.

Empire, Tourism, Nostalgia: Joseph Brodsky and Travel Writing

Joseph Brodsky, one of the most influential Russian intellectuals of the late Soviet period, was born in Leningrad in 1940, emigrated to the United States in 1972, received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987, and died in New York City in 1996. Brodsky was one of the leading public figures of Soviet emigration in the Cold War period, and his role as a model for the constructing of Russian cultural identities in the last years of the Soviet Union was, and still is, extremely important. One of Joseph Brodsky’s great contributions to Russian culture of the latter half of the twentieth century is the wide geographical scope of his poetic and prose works. Brodsky was not a travel writer, but he was a traveling writer who wrote a considerable number of poems and essays which relate to his trips and travels in the Soviet empire and outside it. Travel writing offered for Brodsky a discursive space for negotiating his own transculturation, while it also offered him a discursive space for making powerful statements about displacement, culture, history and geography, time and space—all major themes of his poetry. In this study of Joseph Brodsky’s travel writing I focus on his travel texts in poetry and prose, which relate to his post-1972 trips to Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, and Venice. Questions of empire, tourism, and nostalgia are foregrounded in one way or another in Brodsky’s travel writing performed in emigration. I explore these concepts through the study of tropes, strategies of identity construction, and the politics of representation. The theoretical premises of my work draw on the literary and cultural criticism which has evolved around the study of travel and travel writing in recent years. These approaches have gained much from the scholarly experience provided by postcolonial critique. Shifting the focus away from the concept of exile, the traditional framework for scholarly discussions of Brodsky’s works, I propose to review Brodsky’s travel poetry and prose as a response not only to his exilic condition but to the postmodern and postcolonial landscape, which initially shaped the writing of these texts. Discussing Brodsky’s travel writing in this context offers previously unexplored perspectives for analyzing the geopolitical, philosophical, and linguistic premises of his poetic imagination. By situating Brodsky’s travel writing in the geopolitical landscape of postcolonial postmodernity, I attempt to show how Brodsky’s engagement with his contemporary cultural practices in the West was incorporated into his Russian-language travel poetry and prose and how this engagement thus contributed to these texts’ status as exceptional and unique literary events within late Soviet Russian cultural practices.

Nuclear power and Japan's collective future: Understanding beliefs about how nuclear policies will affect society

Despite ongoing controversies regarding possible directions for the nuclear plants program throughout Japan since the Fukushima disaster, little has been researched about people's belief structure about future society and what may affect their attitudes toward different policy options. Beyond policy debates, the present study focused on how people see a future society according to the assumptions of different policy options. A total of 125 students at Japanese universities were asked to compare a future society with society today in which one of alternative policies was adopted (i.e., shutdown or expansion of nuclear reactors) in terms of characteristics of individuals and society in general. While perceived dangerousness of nuclear power predicted attitudes and behavioural intentions to make personal sacrifices for nuclear power policies, beliefs about the social consequences of the policies, especially on economic development and dysfunction, appeared to play stronger roles in predicting those measures. The importance of sociological dimensions in understanding how people perceive the future of society regarding alternative nuclear power policies, and the subtle discrepancies between attitudes and behavioural intentions, are discussed.

Are we there yet? Advancing women in Canada and Australia: Similar goals, different policies

Differences in opportunities and outcomes in the workplace are inherent in a free and competitive market. However when differences between individuals and groups are identified as resulting from particular policies, behaviours or attitudes, any resulting inequality may be identified as unfair. Increasingly, unfair disparities in societies and their workplaces are regularly challenged. Many of the unfair disparities are recognised as caused through unfair discrimination (Anker 1997). When defining discrimination, the International Labour Organization Convention (ILO) No. 111 defines it as “any distinction, exclusion or preference made on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction, or social origin, which has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation” (ILO, 1958). Yet, the argument for addressing this ideal of ‘equality of opportunity’ is complex. Ekmekci (2013) identifies the difficulties as the determination of whether any process should be based on equality of opportunity or equality of outcome. In addition, there is the difficulty of determining what exactly constitutes a process for addressing unfair disparity due to the haziness of what constitutes discrimination and controversy in the meaning as well as policy implications of equality (Tomei, 2003).

An economic approach towards estimating health impacts of major transport investments and transport policies: A case study of transport emission abatement policy

The PhD thesis developed an economic model as an integral part of the current Health Impact Assessment (HIA) framework. Based on a Health Production Function approach, the model showed how to estimate economic benefits of positive health gains generated by transport investment programs and transport policies. Using Australian mortality and morbidity statistics and applying econometric analysis, the case study quantified health benefits induced by transport emission abatement policies in dollar terms for the Australian households. Finally, the thesis demonstrated transferability of the economic model through two example case studies, establishing a wider application capacity of the model.

The Europeanisation of occupational health services: A study of the impact of EU policies

This study concerns Framework Directive 89/391/EEC on health and safety at work, which encouraged improvements in occupational health services (OHS) for workers in EU member states. Framework Directive 89/391/EEC originally aimed at bringing the same level of occupational health and safety to employees in both the public and private sectors in EU member states. However, the implementation of the framework directive and OHS varies widely among EU member states. Occupational health services have generally been considered an important work-related welfare benefit in EU member states. The purpose of this study was to analyse OHS within the EU context and then analyse the impact of EU policies on OHS implementation as part of the welfare state benefit. The focus is on social, health, and industrial policies within welfare state regimes as well as EU policy-making processes affecting these policies in EU member states. The research tasks were divided into four groups related to the policy, functions, targets,and actors of OHS. The questions related to policy tried to discover the role of OHS in other policies, such as health, social, and labour market policies within the EU. The questions about functions sought to describe the changes, as well as the path dependence, of OHS in EU member states after the framework directive. The questions about targets were based on the general aims of WHO and the ILO in relation to equity, solidarity, universality, and access to OHS. The questions on actors were designed to understand the variety of stakeholders interested in OHS. The actors were supranational (EU, ILO, and WHO), national (ministries, institutes, and professional organisations), and social partners (trade unions and employers organisations). The study data were collected by interviewing 92 people in 15 EU member states, including representatives of ministries, institutions, research,trade unions, employers organisations, and occupational health organisations. Other documents were collected from the Internet,databases, libraries, and conference materials for a systematic review of the policies, strategies, organisation, financing, and monitoring of OHS in EU member states. Different analytical methods were used in the data analysis. The main findings of the study can be summarised as follows. First, occupational health services is a context-dependent phenomenon, which therefore varies according to the development of the welfare state in general, and depends on each country s culture, history, economy, and politics. The views of different stakeholders in EU member states concerning the impact and possibilities of OHS to improve health vary from evidence-based opinions to the sporadic impact of OHS on occupational health. OHS as a concept is vaguely defined by the EU, whereas the ILO defines OHS content. The tasks of OHS began as preventive and protective services for workers. However, they have moved towards multidisciplinary and organisational development as well as the workplace health promotion sphere.Since 1989 OHS has developed differently in different EU member states depending on the starting position of those states, but planning and implementation are crucial phases in the process toward better OHS coverage, equity, and access. Nevertheless, the data used for the planning and legitimisation of OHS activities are mainly based on occupational health data rather than on OHS data. This makes decisions on political or policy grounds inaccurate. OHS is still an evolving concept and benefit for workers, but the Europeanisation of OHS reflects contextual changes, such as the impact of the internal market, competition, and commercialisation on OHS. Stronger cooperation and integration with health, social, and employment services would be an asset for workers, because of new epidemics, an epidemiological shift towards new risks, an ageing labour market, and changes in the labour market. Different methods and approaches are needed in order to study the results of integrated services. In the future, more detailed information will be needed about the actual impact of EU policies on OHS and decision-making processes in order to get OHS into different policies in the EU and its member states. Further results and effects of OHS processes on occupational health need to be analysed more carefully. The adoption of a variety of research strategies and a multidisciplinary approach to understand the influence of different policies on OHS in the EU and its member states would highlight the options and opportunities to improve workers occupational health. Key subject headings: Occupational health services, EU policy, policymaking,framework directive 89/391/EEC

Efficient Energy Management Policies for Networks with Energy Harvesting Sensor Nodes

We study sensor networks with energy harvesting nodes. The generated energy at a node can be stored in a buffer. A sensor node periodically senses a random field and generates a packet. These packets are stored in a queue and transmitted using the energy available at that time at the node. For such networks we develop efficient energy management policies. First, for a single node, we obtain policies that are throughput optimal, i.e., the data queue stays stable for the largest possible data rate. Next we obtain energy management policies which minimize the mean delay in the queue. We also compare performance of several easily implementable suboptimal policies. A greedy policy is identified which, in low SNR regime, is throughput optimal and also minimizes mean delay. Next using the results for a single node, we develop efficient MAC policies.

Comparative study on green building supportive policies of pacific-rim countries most vulnerable to climate change

- Problem Climate change is affecting the world in numerous ways such as increased temperatures, sea level rise, and increased droughts and floods. Governments worldwide, especially in the most vulnerable countries, are urged to seek better solutions for sustainable development. The construction industry and buildings have enormous impacts on humans and the environment, meaning green building must be one of the solutions. Government involvement is widely considered as one of the essential and most effective ways to promote green building and drive the construction market towards sustainability. This paper will review green building policy of the Pacific-Rim countries that are most vulnerable to climate change according to the recent Standard and Poor’s ranking, including: Cambodia, Vietnam, Fiji, Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Methodology: This paper will review policy related publications including journal and conference papers, portal websites of governments, legislation documents and reports of international organisations. It will focus on the policies and governmental instruments that support the adoption of green building practices. - Findings All six governments have launched climate change adaptation policies, showing a great concern regarding the damages caused by the phenomenon. All countries except Papua New Guinea have promulgated energy efficiency policy and programs which indirectly promote the adoption of green building practices. The comparison study shows that Philippines and Indonesia motivate the adoption of renewable energy generation, energy efficiency and green building through either financial or advocacy instruments, while other four countries tend to implement regulatory tools to mandate energy conservation. Through comparison, Cambodia and Vietnam – the two countries providing vision to develop green building - can learn from Philippines and Indonesia’s policy and instruments. - Research limitations Language differences between the countries and limit of formal sources may pose difficulties in searching for information. While much English language literature exists, sources from Cambodia, Philippines and Indonesia are less accessible. - Takeaway for practice As the paper provides more understanding about the supportive policy of those countries, it will introduce more opportunities for green property developers to invest in construction markets of those Pacific-Rim countries. - Originality There is little research reviewing green building supportive policies of developing and less-wealthy countries that are forecasted to be most vulnerable and most impacted by climate change. The originality of this paper lies in its investigation on how those countries intend to respond to this phenomenon and whether and to what extent they support the green building market by using policy tools.

Organisational sustainability policies and employee green behaviour: The mediating role of work climate perceptions

Organisations are increasingly introducing sustainability policies to encourage environmentally friendly behaviours. Employees' green work climate perceptions (i.e., how they perceive their organisations' and co-workers' orientations towards environmental sustainability) may constitute psychological mechanisms that link such policies with behaviour. We present findings of a study on relationships among the perceived presence of organisational sustainability policies, green work climate perceptions and employee reports of their green behaviour (EGB). We hypothesised that green work climate perceptions mediate the positive relationship between employees' perceptions of the presence of a sustainability policy and EGB. Results based on data from 168 employees supported our hypotheses. Green work climate perceptions of the organisation and of co-workers differentially mediated the effects of the perceived presence of a sustainability policy on task-related and proactive EGB. These findings extend research on the efficacy of sustainability policies by shedding new light on the psychological mechanisms that link them with EGB.

Essays on socially optimal phosphorus policies in crop production

Phosphorus is a nutrient needed in crop production. While boosting crop yields it may also accelerate eutrophication in the surface waters receiving the phosphorus runoff. The privately optimal level of phosphorus use is determined by the input and output prices, and the crop response to phosphorus. Socially optimal use also takes into account the impact of phosphorus runoff on water quality. Increased eutrophication decreases the economic value of surface waters by Deteriorating fish stocks, curtailing the potential for recreational activities and by increasing the probabilities of mass algae blooms. In this dissertation, the optimal use of phosphorus is modelled as a dynamic optimization problem. The potentially plant available phosphorus accumulated in soil is treated as a dynamic state variable, the control variable being the annual phosphorus fertilization. For crop response to phosphorus, the state variable is more important than the annual fertilization. The level of this state variable is also a key determinant of the runoff of dissolved, reactive phosphorus. Also the loss of particulate phosphorus due to erosion is considered in the thesis, as well as its mitigation by constructing vegetative buffers. The dynamic model is applied for crop production on clay soils. At the steady state, the analysis focuses on the effects of prices, damage parameterization, discount rate and soil phosphorus carryover capacity on optimal steady state phosphorus use. The economic instruments needed to sustain the social optimum are also analyzed. According to the results the economic incentives should be conditioned on soil phosphorus values directly, rather than on annual phosphorus applications. The results also emphasize the substantial effects the differences in varying discount rates of the farmer and the social planner have on optimal instruments. The thesis analyzes the optimal soil phosphorus paths from its alternative initial levels. It also examines how erosion susceptibility of a parcel affects these optimal paths. The results underline the significance of the prevailing soil phosphorus status on optimal fertilization levels. With very high initial soil phosphorus levels, both the privately and socially optimal phosphorus application levels are close to zero as the state variable is driven towards its steady state. The soil phosphorus processes are slow. Therefore, depleting high phosphorus soils may take decades. The thesis also presents a methodologically interesting phenomenon in problems of maximizing the flow of discounted payoffs. When both the benefits and damages are related to the same state variable, the steady state solution may have an interesting property, under very general conditions: The tail of the payoffs of the privately optimal path as well as the steady state may provide a higher social welfare than the respective tail of the socially optimal path. The result is formalized and an applied to the created framework of optimal phosphorus use.

Interventions, policies, and future research directions in partner violence

There have been sweeping changes in policy and practice on violence against intimate partners over the past several decades. New laws, policies, programs, and research funding have shaped the literature on this topic as well as the contours of violence itself. A substantial portion of the contemporary research literature is devoted to the policies and interventions that affect intimate partner violence. This chapter will first review key policy changes that have shaped interventions in violence against intimate partners. Second, it will map major areas of research on policy and intervention in violence and abuse. Finally, it will propose directions for future research.

School policies on bullying and cyberbullying: Perspectives across three Australian states

Background Despite decades of research, bullying in all its forms is still a significant problem within schools in Australia, as it is internationally. Anti-bullying policies and guidelines are thought to be one strategy as part of a whole school approach to reduce bullying. However, although Australian schools are required to have these policies, their effectiveness is not clear. As policies and guidelines about bullying and cyberbullying are developed within education departments, this paper explores the perspectives of those who are involved in their construction. Purpose This study examined the perspectives of professionals involved in policy construction, across three different Australian states. The aim was to determine how their relative jurisdictions define bullying and cyberbullying, the processes for developing policy, the bullying prevention and intervention recommendations given to schools and the content considered essential in current policies. Sample Eleven key stakeholders from three Australian states with similar education systems were invited to participate. The sample selection criteria included professionals with experience and training in education, cyber-safety and the responsibility to contribute to or make decisions which inform policy in this area for schools in their state. Design and methods Participants were interviewed about the definitions of bullying they used in their state policy frameworks; the extent to which cyberbullying was included; and the content they considered essential for schools to include in anti-bullying policies. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. Findings Seven themes were identified in the data: - (1) Definition of bullying and cyberbullying; - (2) Existence of a policy template; - (3) Policy location; - (4) Adding cyberbullying; - (5) Distinguishing between bullying and cyberbullying; - (6) Effective policy, and; - (7) Policy as a prevention or intervention tool. The results were similar both across state boundaries and also across different disciplines. Conclusion Analysis of the data suggested that, across the themes, there was some lack of information about bullying and cyberbullying. This limitation could affect the subsequent development, dissemination and sustainability of school anti-bullying policies, which have implications for the translation of research to inform better student outcomes.

Global Media and National Policies : The Return of the State

Conventional wisdom views globalization as a process that heralds the diminishing role or even 'death' of the state and the rise of transnational media and transnational consumption, that defy state control or regulation. This book questions these assumptions and shows that the nation-state never left and is still a force to be reckoned with.