Optimizing contract allocation for risky conservation tenders

In the face of a shrinking budget for environmental activities, conservation agencies must design and implement agri-environmental policies that cost-effectively meet the environmental objectives. However, designing such programs is often challenging due to different uncertainties. For example, land...

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Main Authors: Olita, Toto, Iftekhar, Md Sayed, Schilizzi, Steven
Format: Journal Article
Published: Springer 2022
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP150104219
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/88257
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author Olita, Toto
Iftekhar, Md Sayed
Schilizzi, Steven
author_facet Olita, Toto
Iftekhar, Md Sayed
Schilizzi, Steven
author_sort Olita, Toto
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description In the face of a shrinking budget for environmental activities, conservation agencies must design and implement agri-environmental policies that cost-effectively meet the environmental objectives. However, designing such programs is often challenging due to different uncertainties. For example, landholders may be exposed to risks when carrying out conservation projects. To minimise the negative impact of unexpected losses, landholders may require additional financial incentives as compensation for undertaking “risky” conservation projects. In such situations, the conservation agency risks over-spending public funds because of prohibitively high opportunity costs from landholders or failing to meet the environmental target. We used analytical and simulation approaches to explore optimal budget allocation in a target-constrained conservation tender. We also compared the performance of the tender with and without own-cost uncertainty. Results showed that as landholders’ own-cost uncertainty rises, the conservation agency is forced to allocate more funding to secure the same level of the environmental target. We found that the optimal funding level is sensitive to landholders’ competition uncertainty and the magnitude of expected losses.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-882572022-05-03T02:59:40Z Optimizing contract allocation for risky conservation tenders Olita, Toto Iftekhar, Md Sayed Schilizzi, Steven In the face of a shrinking budget for environmental activities, conservation agencies must design and implement agri-environmental policies that cost-effectively meet the environmental objectives. However, designing such programs is often challenging due to different uncertainties. For example, landholders may be exposed to risks when carrying out conservation projects. To minimise the negative impact of unexpected losses, landholders may require additional financial incentives as compensation for undertaking “risky” conservation projects. In such situations, the conservation agency risks over-spending public funds because of prohibitively high opportunity costs from landholders or failing to meet the environmental target. We used analytical and simulation approaches to explore optimal budget allocation in a target-constrained conservation tender. We also compared the performance of the tender with and without own-cost uncertainty. Results showed that as landholders’ own-cost uncertainty rises, the conservation agency is forced to allocate more funding to secure the same level of the environmental target. We found that the optimal funding level is sensitive to landholders’ competition uncertainty and the magnitude of expected losses. 2022 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/88257 10.1007/S10018-022-00341-1 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP150104219 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE180101503 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Springer fulltext
spellingShingle Olita, Toto
Iftekhar, Md Sayed
Schilizzi, Steven
Optimizing contract allocation for risky conservation tenders
title Optimizing contract allocation for risky conservation tenders
title_full Optimizing contract allocation for risky conservation tenders
title_fullStr Optimizing contract allocation for risky conservation tenders
title_full_unstemmed Optimizing contract allocation for risky conservation tenders
title_short Optimizing contract allocation for risky conservation tenders
title_sort optimizing contract allocation for risky conservation tenders
url http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP150104219
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP150104219
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/88257