Ross Cullen - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Ross Cullen

Environment Perceptions Survey

Forest Ecology and Management, 2015

This thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the f... more This thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use:  you will use the copy only for the purposes of research or private study  you will recognise the author's right to be identified as the author of the thesis and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate  you will obtain the author's permission before publishing any material from the thesis. Chapter 3 Estimation of carbon stock under different management regimes of tropical forest in the Terai Arc Landscape, Nepal

Valuing Marine Reserves: A case study from two locations in central New Zealand

Marine Policy

Oil and gas have been produced on the Norwegian continental shelf since 1971. Exploration rates, ... more Oil and gas have been produced on the Norwegian continental shelf since 1971. Exploration rates, extraction rates, employment, expertise levels, exports of oil and gas have all increased many fold during 1971-‐2013. The State has several roles in the Norwegian petroleum sector including basic research provider, allocator of exploration rights, investor, infrastructure owner, taxation collector, Sovereign Wealth Fund owner. In this paper I review the development of the petroleum sector in Norway, and highlight the various roles of the State in the development of the sector. The paper provides an overview of the macroeconomic importance of oil and gas in the Norwegian economy and critiques selected petroleum related policies.

Management of New Zealand marine fisheries is widely regarded as innovative and effective. Howeve... more Management of New Zealand marine fisheries is widely regarded as innovative and effective. However a nationwide survey in 2000 revealed that New Zealanders judge the state of New Zealand's marine fisheries to be adequate to good, and management of the marine fisheries is only adequate. On those two criteria marine fisheries obtained the lowest ratings amongst thirteen areas of the natural environment. In this paper we report results from a 2002 nationwide survey which repeats the 2000 questions and probes further to determine which features of marine fisheries and their management lead to their comparatively low scores. Findings are consistent between the two surveys. There are clear differences in perception on the basis of ethnicity and this has a range of policy implications for fisheries and other policy managers.

New Zealand marine fishing activities create many types of environmental externalities, which by ... more New Zealand marine fishing activities create many types of environmental externalities, which by law must be internalised. Selection of best internalisation instruments can be aided by following a hierarchical decision process, which first screens the universe of instruments against implementation criteria to establish the feasible set. Instruments in the feasible set can be evaluated against a range of environmental, Treaty of Waitangi, economic, sociocultural and management criteria. This approach to selection can be formalised in decision support software to provide a useful tool for fisheries management agencies.

The term biodiversity conservation can be applied to efforts to conserve genetic diversity, speci... more The term biodiversity conservation can be applied to efforts to conserve genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity. This paper focuses on efforts to conserve species and ecosystem diversity. Efforts to reduce, or halt this rapid loss of species and ecosystems involve significant costs. Environment Department staff of the World Bank report that in Africa alone it has financed or managed for the Global Environmental Facility, 118 projects with biodiversity elements worth US 1.8billionWorldBank(1998).InNewZealand,1997/98expendituresonecologicalmanagementaccountedfor1.8 billion World Bank (1998). In New Zealand, 1997/98 expenditures on ecological management accounted for 1.8billionWorldBank(1998).InNewZealand,1997/98expendituresonecologicalmanagementaccountedfor72.5

is important for central government to have good information about public preferences regarding b... more is important for central government to have good information about public preferences regarding budget allocations. Consumer sovereignty, government popularity, and efficiency are all dependent on clear articulation of community preferences. The paper draws upon information gathered as part of a large-scale survey to identify community perceptions about the state of the New Zealand environment (Hughey et al., 2002) to identify public preferences for allocation of government monies. Methods entailed survey participant statements of preferences for spending on specified environmental and conservation items, a balanced macro-budget reallocation exercise, and a choice modelling exercise to reveal willingness to trade-off expenditures on particular budget items. The environmental budget allocation exercise provides little guidance on which aspects of environmental spending would provide the greatest benefits at the margin. For most items the modal response was no change in current spendi...

Benefit transfer (BT) is a pragmatic way of estimating values by transferring values from existin... more Benefit transfer (BT) is a pragmatic way of estimating values by transferring values from existing valuation studies to a target area of interest. BT using choice modeling (CM) is a potentially cost-effective method for valuing differences in improvements in environmental quality. After taking into account a range of policy options, ecosystem service attributes, socioeconomic characteristics and attitudinal variables for two winegrowing regions and populations, this study uses CM to value the marginal benefits of improvement in selected ecosystem services associated with winegrowing. This study tests the transferability of willingness-to-pay or welfare measures of equivalence across two sites to check the suitability of the estimates to be transferred between the sites. Policy implications conclude the paper.

The increase in greenhouse gas emissions and degradation of water quality and quantity in waterwa... more The increase in greenhouse gas emissions and degradation of water quality and quantity in waterways due to dairy farming in New Zealand have become of growing concern. Compared to traditional sheep and beef cattle farming, dairy farming is more input intensive and more likely to cause such environmental damage. Our study uses choice modeling to explore New Zealanders ’ willingness to pay for sustainable dairy and sheep/beef cattle farming. We investigate respondents ’ level of awareness of the environmental degradation caused by dairy farming and their willingness to make trade-offs between economic growth and improvements in the level of ecosystem services associated with pastoral farming. Key Words: ecosystem services; greenhouse gas emissions; dairy farming; choice modeling

The systems used by Banks Peninsula District Council (BPDC) to fund Akaroa's water, wastewater an... more The systems used by Banks Peninsula District Council (BPDC) to fund Akaroa's water, wastewater and solid waste systems are critiqued against ten criteria and are found to perform poorly. The mix of rates and charges fail to meet efficiency or equity objectives. Residents and holiday homeowners pay disproportionately large shares of the costs of these systems. Water meters have been installed in Akaroa and volumetric water and wastewater charges can be introduced, following further data collection, to reduce peak water use and more accurately allocate costs. This will also lower BPDC operating costs and avoid the need for new water supply capacity.

Research Project Funded by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Canterbury Development Co... more Research Project Funded by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Canterbury Development Corporation

Conservation biological control (CBC) aims to improve conditions for natural enemies in agricultu... more Conservation biological control (CBC) aims to improve conditions for natural enemies in agricultural landscapes and has the goal of reducing pest species below threshold level to thus avoid the need for synthetic chemicals. The CBC approach has been introduced in several counties, including New Zealand. Agricultural R&D is widely studied, however agricultural innovations and their adoption is less studied. A CBC practice introduced in Waipara vineyards is described in this paper and an evaluation of the uptake and economic sustainability of this innovation is provided. Results indicate that there are ongoing costs involved with maintaining the innovation and that adoption of the innovation is highly variable across winegrowing properties.

Forests form the dominant natural ecosystem in Malaysia. About 55% of Malaysian land area is fore... more Forests form the dominant natural ecosystem in Malaysia. About 55% of Malaysian land area is forested and endows a rich diversity of flora and fauna. Peat swamp forests constitute a significant component of forest and account for about 75% of the country’s total wetlands. Many peat swamp forests have already been converted to new land uses including palm oil plantations, agriculture and housing. The south-east Pahang peat swamp forest (SEPPSF), located at Pahang state is the largest peat swamp forest cover in Peninsular Malaysia and is believed to be the mainland Asia’s largest and intact peat swamp forest. It harbours unique flora and fauna, provides benefits and services of national interest and supports the livelihood of the aborigines (Orang Asli) communities. Many of the benefits and services from peat swamp forests are unpriced and this can lead to faulty land use decision making. Non market valuation can provide important information on the value of many currently unpriced it...

Economists are in danger of being outcompeted in environmental decision making by researchers fro... more Economists are in danger of being outcompeted in environmental decision making by researchers from other disciplines. Decision makers need information to be able to evaluate and to make choice. Economists apply considerable effort to complete non market valuation studies, and cost benefit analyses, to inform decision makers but the information generated in those studies is often difficult for non-economists to understand. Decision makers may also have an aversion towards monetary valuation of preferences for aspects of the environment. Alternatives to non market valuation and cost benefit analysis, including cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) and cost utility analysis (CUA), provide low cost, practical ways to evaluate projects and provide information for decision makers. Economists need to think carefully what is most important, the need to evaluate and provide information to aid decision making, or pursuit of a gold standard of monetising Benefits and Costs in all evaluations.

The Department of Conservation provides water supply, and disposal of wastewater and solid waste ... more The Department of Conservation provides water supply, and disposal of wastewater and solid waste at several sites in Westland District. Visitor numbers vary greatly between sites, with approximately 250,000 people per year visiting the Franz Josef Glacier, and 95,000 per year visiting the National Park Headquarters building in Franz Josef township. Legislation allows the Department to charge for services provided in parks and reserves, but at present there are no charges for use of toilet facilities provided at the Franz Josef Glacier, or the Park Headquarters building in Franz Josef township. At Department of Conservation campgrounds and huts, bundling of services means that some revenue is collected from users to meet part of the costs of water supply and wastewater systems. Greater use of direct user charges for water supply, and wastewater systems would reduce the need for general taxpayers to fund these systems.

Paper presented at the joint annual conference of the New Zealand Association of Economists and t... more Paper presented at the joint annual conference of the New Zealand Association of Economists and the Law and Economics Association of New Zealand, 30 June - 2 July 2010, University of Auckland Business School.

The increase in greenhouse gas emissions and degradation of water quality and quantity in waterwa... more The increase in greenhouse gas emissions and degradation of water quality and quantity in waterways due to dairy farming in New Zealand have become of growing concern. Compared to traditional sheep and beef cattle farming, dairy farming is more input intensive and more likely to cause such environmental damage. Our study uses choice modeling to explore New Zealanders' willingness to pay for sustainable dairy and sheep/beef cattle farming. We investigate respondents' level of awareness of the environmental degradation caused by dairy farming and their willingness to make trade-offs between economic growth and improvements in the level of ecosystem services associated with pastoral farming.

Environment Perceptions Survey

Forest Ecology and Management, 2015

Valuing Marine Reserves: A case study from two locations in central New Zealand

Marine Policy

The increase in greenhouse gas emissions and degradation of water quality and quantity in waterwa... more The increase in greenhouse gas emissions and degradation of water quality and quantity in waterways due to dairy farming in New Zealand have become of growing concern. Compared to traditional sheep and beef cattle farming, dairy farming is more input intensive and more likely to cause such environmental damage. Our study uses choice modeling to explore New Zealanders' willingness to pay for sustainable dairy and sheep/beef cattle farming. We investigate respondents' level of awareness of the environmental degradation caused by dairy farming and their willingness to make trade-offs between economic growth and improvements in the level of ecosystem services associated with pastoral farming.