IntroductionThe Great Barrier Reef has been an iconic part of Australia’s global image for decades. It is considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world, it has been a world heritage site since 1981 and it is considered a state icon of Queensland. This stunning and complex natural resource draws in more than two million visitors a year, and yet there is immense controversy surrounding the conservation of the reef. The Great Barrier Reef is a sensitive environment that relies on the costal ecosystems surrounding the reef to function. The costal ecosystems provide the aquatic terrestrial link that “…support[s] the physical, biological and biogeochemical process that underpin the ecosystem health of the Great Barrier Reef…” (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, 2012). The Great Barrier Reef provides Australians and people worldwide many social benefits such as agricultural production, commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, recreation and environmental values. Total Economic Value of the Great Barrier ReefThe GreatBarrier Reef provides economic benefits when either preserved or destroyed. Environmentaland economic concerns tend to raise controversy, whether it be land rights,natural resources, pollution or any other variety of environmental concerns.Public opinion is heavily divided, some believe that the environment shouldcome first at all costs while others believe the economy is of greaterimportance. There is no right or wrong answer. The truth is that economicbenefits often conflict with environmental and social benefits. This effectsthe way that policy makers make decisions, therefore it is very important thatthere is a way to value environmental features within nature in monetary terms.“Valuing nature in monetary terms caneffectively inform policy settings and help industry, government, the sciencecommunity and the wider public fully understand the contribution of theenvironment to the economy and society.” (Total economic value of the GreatBarrier Reef what you need to know, 2017). In a world that is continually growing moreenvironmentally conscientious it is important that there is a way to assistwith mutual understanding of environmental and economic costs and benefits.Using the Total Economic Value (TEV) framework a monetary value can be placedenvironmental features such as the Great Barrier Reef. The aim of this essay isto provide an analysis of the value of the Great Barrier Reef and provide acase for conserving the Great Barrier Reef and limitingor modifying the main activities or driving forces that are putting pressure ofthe Reef’s overall health. What is Total Economic Value (TEV)?TEV is a cost-benefit analysisframework used for valuing a natural resource and comparing the cost andbenefit of having said resource to the cost and benefit of not having it. Asrepresented in figure 1 below, there are many different types of values, themain two being use values and non-use values. Figure 1: Total Economic Value Framework (Total economic value of the Great Barrier Reef what you need to know, 2017) Putting a monetary value on a naturalresource is a complex task and therefore all values must be reviewed andunderstood. For example the Great Barrier Reef is an iconic Australian image,as an icon the Great Barrier Reef holds icon value which is internationallyinfluential on not only tourism but politics and business as well.Identifying the Costs and Benefits of Great Barrier Reef ConservationCost Benefit analysis (CBA) is aprocess that attempts to measure the positive and negative consequences ofsomething. CBA measures externality effects, social benefits and effects onboth participants and non-participants. Social Benefits of Great Barrier Reef ConservationThe Great Barrier Reef holds asignificant number of social benefits that need to be reviewed when consideringthe TEV or a CBA of the reef. In a report of this size not all benefits can bereviewed, just the most major social benefits and costs will be briefly discussed.The Great Barrier Reef has been an important resource for thousands of years,stretching back to when the indigenous population lived within the coastalareas surrounding the Great Barrier Reef. Today the reef is used and valued asa place for people to visit and enjoy. The reef has provided over 54000 fulltime jobs for Australians through fishing and tourism (At what price? Theeconomic, social and icon value of the Great Barrier Reef, 2017). The reef isalso an important area for culture, recreation, scientific research and defenceforce training (McCook et al., 2010). Even through indirect use the GreatBarrier Reef effects millions of people purely by existing. Having a pristinecoastal and marine area to use for recreational activities promotes a healthierlifestyle, this is a social benefit that provides a healthier population andtherefore in the long term decreases medical costs. There is a similarsituation regarding air pollution. Having a healthy coastal environment andhealthy marine environment would help to increase clean air and reduce airpollution, this again would cut medical costs in the long term and promote ahealthy lifestyle. Social Costs of Great Barrier Reef ConservationIt can be argued that the conservationof the Great Barrier Reef will have a negative effect on jobs due to the factthat reef conservation has a negative effect on coal mining and shippingroutes. In order to protect the reef costal development must be regulated andminimised and this will have a significant effect on population growth and willeconomically effect coastal towns. Conservation of the reef does notnecessarily mean removing all profitable practices from the reef. Conservationcan mean that economic activity may continue but only in a way that issustainable. Great Barrier Reef conservation will result in decreased growthrate for jobs within mining, fishing, agricultural and tourism sectors.Although growth rates for jobs would have to slow in the long term picture thejobs that are created would be created to last. As population size willcontinue to grow it must be determined if the conservation of the Great BarrierReef will be enough to support many coastal and inland communities in northQueensland. The biggest driving force for the support of development of newcoal mines and coastal ports in north Queensland is the promise of new jobs forthe people living in proximity to the Great Barrier Reef. Measuring the costs and benefits of Great Barrier Reef conservationBenefits of the Great Barrier ReefBenefitBenefit TypeEconomic Value TypeValuation MethodRecreational BenefitsSocial BenefitDirect UseBoth visitors and residents use the Great Barrier Reef for recreational activities. The travel cost method would be used to determine the amount of money that people spent travelling in order to use the reef for recreational activities. “About 60 per cent of recreational visitors visit the Reef between one and 10 times in a year, but a small proportion (about 15 per cent) visit the area more than 50 times a year. Recreational use (including recreational fishing) contributed $153 million to the Australian economy in 2006/07. The exact contribution of the non-fishing component is not known.” (Gbrmpa.gov.au, 2017)Economic SustainabilityPrivate BenefitDirect UseBy maintaining the health of the Great Barrier Reef it will continue to be an asset and supply jobs to the local area. Economic Sustainability can be valued using the Damage Cost Avoided, Replacement Cost, and Substitute Cost MethodsCultural BenefitsSocial BenefitBequest ValueAltruist ValueExistence ValueIcon ValueMany Australians take pride in the natural phenomena within the country and are inclined to protect it for the use of future generations. Hedonic pricing would be used to determine the benefit of the reef in terms of cultural and aesthetic value.Health BenefitsSocial BenefitDirect UseCleaner air and promotion of recreational activities will have health issues decrease and money will be saved on Medicare. Health Benefits would be measured using the contingent valuation method.Scientific ResearchSocial and Private BenefitDirect UseThe Great Barrier Reef can continue to be used for scientific research that may one day supply invaluable research.Fishing industryPrivate BenefitDirect useThe use of the reef for commercial fishing can be valued using the market price method, as fish can be valued within a commercial market.Tourism IndustrySocial BenefitDirect UseThe use of the reef for tourism can be valued using the productivity method or the contingent valuation method as the reef supplies many products and services within the tourism industry.Costs of the Great Barrier ReefCostCost TypeEconomic Value TypeValuation MethodEmployment opportunitiesSocial costDirect UseWithout the Great Barrier Reef there would be much less employment opportunity as the tourism and fishing sectors would be significantly affected.Loss of TourismPrivate CostDirect UseA large amount of money would be lost from tourism and effect the GDP of Australia. The cost of the loss of tourism can be measured using the productivity method or the contingent valuation method.Coastal developmentPrivate CostDirect UseCoastal development would slow as the area surrounding the great barrier reef became less desirable to live in.Increase in mining and shippingPrivate CostDirect UseThe loss of the Great Barrier Reef would result in more coal mining and the development of new ports to ship the coal from Australia to other countriesOptions for quantifying the costs and benefits of Great Barrier Reef conservationIt appears that the best way todetermine a monetary value of the Great Barrier Reef is the total economicvalue (TEV) framework. This framework has been used many times by manydifferent organisations and repeatedly appears to have consistent conclusions.Oxford Economics assessed the TEV of the Great Barrier Reef in 2009 and came tothe conclusion that it is worth 51.4 billion dollars (Valuing the effects ofGreat Barrier Reef bleaching, 2017), and in 2017 Deloitte economists determinedthat the value of the Great Barrier Reef stood at 56 billion dollars (At whatprice? The economic, social and icon value of the Great Barrier Reef, 2017). TheTEV framework effectively encompasses the greatest range of costs, benefits andvalues out of all other frameworks. When using cost benefit analysis (CBA) theindirect benefits are not considered in the same way that they are with the TEVapproach. It was determined in the Deloitte economists report that the secondmost valuable aspect of the Great Barrier Reef was indirect or non-use value at23.8 billion dollars, second to only tourism which was determined to be worth astaggering 29 billion dollars. It is clear that the TEV framework is the bestsystem currently within use.ConclusionThe final thoughts on the topic ofevaluating the value of the Great Barrier Reef, one of the world’s greatestnatural resources, is that currently the best and most effective way to put amonetary value on the reef is to use the TEV approach. This resource mustpreserved and Australia must not allow this resource to become abused anddestroyed, it is one of the country’s greatest resources and is such an iconicimage that represents Australia as a whole. The value that this brings throughnon-use value is irreplaceable and is in no way worth destroying for aneconomic trade off. 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The economic, social andicon value of the Great Barrier Reef. (2017). [online] Deloitte Economics.Available at:https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/Economics/deloitte-au-economics-great-barrier-reef-230617.pdf[Accessed 14 Aug. 2017].Get Help With Your EssayIf you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!Find out more