Natural resource buybacks and their use to secure environmental flows

Product Information

Governments have committed to investigating the use of market based instruments such as ‘buybacks’ to source water for environmental needs.
Buybacks are common in some natural resource sectors and have been used in the water sector as well. However, there is limited experience or research in Australia to investigate how buybacks could be structured. There has been little focus to date on alternatives to the outright purchase of entitlements, such as the buying of ‘partial’ use rights like options or leaseback arrangements. The objective in this report is to demonstrate the range of available buyback instruments, including those utilising existing and new water rights, in order to stimulate policy debate surrounding their potential use.