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Executive Summary

Project and Client

Landcare Research, Lincoln and the National Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) reviewed a possible role for government in sustainable development extension.

The report is in two parts. Part I; by NZIER, covers the case for government intervention. Part II, of this report covers current theory and practice, and suggests ways to integrate and co-ordinate sustainable development information and extension.

Objectives

1. Explain if and why government should intervene in sustainable development extension.

• Identify the special characteristics of rural industries from a sustainability point of view.
• Identify why government intervention via extension is appropriate to maintain/improve rural sustainability, including a review of the public good component of sustainable development.

2. To identify new skills, roles, players, and capacities needed for the provision and integration of sustainable development information.

• Discuss the nature of sustainable development extension.
• Review current extension practices in New Zealand.
• Suggest ways to improve extension for sustainable development.

Methods

• A modified economic framework was used to show the trade-offs that government needs to make in efficiency, equity and intergenerational impacts.
• Emerging extension theory, collaborative learning theory and the case study experiences of the researchers were used to identify the aims of, and need for, sustainable development extension.
• Current extension practices relating to environmental education and the roles of agencies involved were reviewed and a model for sustainable development extension in New Zealand was developed and refined through a workshop.

Main Findings Part I

• This paper has examined the role of government in providing (environmental) extension services to rural New Zealand.
• Coase (1937) provides a sound platform for considering such interventions, which seek to persuade farmers to act in environmentally sustainable way using their own resources, rather than giving farmers direct assistance. In this way government would provide indirect assistance (through fostering the right approach, providing information, spreading education and some forms of technology transfer) rather than direct assistance (subsidies for planting trees).
• The indirect assistance would be specifically required to target environmental off-farm benefits so that the benefits are captured by the community either regionally or nationally. Furthermore, these benefits would have to be measured using an economic approach and set along side the costs.
• Policymakers will have to take into account the special characteristics of farming that separate it from other activities in the economy. Of importance is the scale of farming activities in New Zealand and the externalities associated with scale.
• Policy devised must take into account how the overriding financial and economic farming imperative interacts with farmer willingness to continue making improvements to the land that are consistent with government environmental policy objectives.
• This requires that policy needs to be flexible and may be delivered differently in different regions depending on the environmental issues being addressed, the social and cultural make-up of the region and past history of interventions.
• Policies will also have to be flexible enough so as to take into account different environmental problems in different regions, different ways of delivering educational material and transferring technology, and different behavioural responses from farmers (from those suggested by economic first principles).
• Although not examined in Part I, the co-ordination between central government and local government is an important ingredient for success of any environmental extension process.

Main Findings Part II

The emphasis that Part I places on the development of flexible extension practice to support sustainable development information is mirrored by the move towards a more collaborative and learning-based model in contemporary extension. This model recognises that information is key to learning and subsequent behaviour change, but learning will only happen if it is supported by a number of social processes. These include a shared understanding, bounded conflict and a supportive environment. This, in turn, implies a need to ensure that the different interest groups have adequate capacity to participate in such processes. Therefore the public good aspect of sustainable development refers to both task (getting sustainable development on-the-ground) and process (creating the conditions for sustainable development) outcomes.

In Part II, it is suggested that there are two key elements that must be improved to successfully develop an integrated information system to support the generation, provision and uptake of sustainable development information. These are:

1. Ensuring the development of information and information systems that are responsive to the needs of end-users, and
2. Creating a favourable social environment for the use of information to underpin constructive change

In particular, it is noted that the constraints to achieving a more integrated approach to sustainable development extension are:

1. Information and knowledge is fragmented
2. There is a lack of capacity to institute collaborative and learning-based approaches on a scale beyond that of individual groups.

There is a need to mainstream appropriate evaluation processes, including indicators of success, both to support, and measure progress towards, such wide-scale collaborative approaches.

Introduction

 Landcare Research and subcontractors the NZIER have reviewed a possible role for government in sustainable development extension for MAF from February to July, 2001.

MAF want a clearer understanding of the arguments associated with government funding and involvement in the area of sustainable development extension. This project sets out to provide this by asking four inter-related questions:

1. What is sustainable development extension?
2. Should government intervene in this area?
3. What are the trade-offs involved?
4. Why and how should government intervene?

This report is in two parts. Part I by NZIER considers government intervention in sustainable development extension. Part II by Landcare Research, covers current theory and practice and suggests a new direction for sustainable development extension (Objectives 1 and 4). It incorporates feedback from a workshop held by MAF and Landcare Research on 29^th May 2001.

Contact for Enquiries

Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND

Phone: +64 4 894 0675
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0745
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