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Abstract
The River Murray and the Coorong in Australia have been in a state of decline. With
the prospect of extended droughts and shifts in inflows due to climate change, difficult
choices loom. The options include halting the decline, triage of some assets along the
River or staying with the declining river system. To support decision-making, a survey
was designed to elicit willingness to pay for improvements in environmental quality.
Over 3000 Australians responded to this survey. The study focuses on key River Murray
environmental quality indicators: the frequency of bird breeding along the River
Murray, increasing native fish populations in the River Murray, increasing the area of
healthy vegetation along the River Murray, and restoring water bird habitat in the
Coorong. State/Territory models were jointly estimated using a panel multinomial
logit error-components model. Willingness to pay estimates for improvements in
environmental quality were calculated for the River Murray and the Coorong.
Respondents were found to be willing to pay most for the Coorong and to improve
waterbird breeding frequency. Respondents from the Australian Capital Territory
were found to have significantly higher willingness to pay whereas those in Victoria
had a significantly lower willingness to pay than respondents in other states.