The law and economics of feral extermination: Legal and economic answers to eradicating the cane toad

The law and economics of feral extermination: Legal and economic answers to eradicating the cane toad

The cane toad is a major environmental threat, but programs for its eradication/control are fragmented, ad hoc and seriously underfunded. They reflect a legal regime for feral eradication hampered by inefficient coordination and inconsistent legislative regimes, resulting in suboptimal eradication strategies created and managed at departmental level. The threat abatement plan (TAP) initiated by the federal government is hampered by this legal environment. There is no system in use in Australia for valuing biodiversity. As a result there is no accepted method to value biodiversity loss caused by the toad. Until that is rectified the underfunding of feral extermination will probably continue and our biodiversity will continue to decline as a result. Recommendations are made for legal reform of feral extermination laws, which should reflect the scale of the threat determined by a proper system for valuing biodiversity loss.

This article was first published by Thomson Reuters in the Environmental and Planning Law Journal and should be cited as Rhett Martin, The law and economics of feral extermination: Legal and economic answers to eradicating the cane toad, (2015) 32 EPLJ 115. For all subscription inquiries please phone, from Australia: 1300 304 195, from Overseas: +61 2 8587 7980 or online at https://www.thomsonreuters.com.au/en-au/contact.html. The official PDF version of this article can also be purchased separately from Thomson Reuters at http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/journals/subscribe-or-purchase.