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Abstract
In the past soil conservation may have been perceived primarily as a problem for the rural
landdholder. It is now generally accepted that both the causes and mitigation of land
degradation involve the whole community, both urban and rural.
The importance that all sectors of the community place on the issue, will strongly influence
both the availability of funds and the urgency with which the problems are addressed.
This paper describes a study undertaken between September and November 1994 which
obtained views from 1200 households across New South Wales. Households were
selected by stratified random sampling methods from high, medium and low income
suburbs of Sydney, country towns across NSW, and rural villages. Additionally, a broad
sample of primary producers were surveyed. as were sample households from an area
regarded as being a source of considerable onsite and offsite land degradation.
The paper reports on the community's priorities for different kinds of resource and
environmental management, and their relative willingness to pay for land conservation.
These 1994 results are then compared with results obtained in similar research reported
by Sinden (1985) and Yapp, Young and Sinden (1990).