Allocating scarce financial resources across regions for environmental management in Queensland, Australia

Regional governance agencies, such as catchment or watershed management committees, are playing a significant role in the management of natural resources. These agencies often depend on central governance agencies for their revenue. In Australia this has created a policy dilemma for Federal and State Governments: how should limited funds be allocated to regional groups? This question is being encountered by central governance agencies worldwide. Based on a study from Queensland, Australia this paper shows how multiple criteria analysis (MCA) was used to inform fiscal equalisation of environmental funds worth A$146.6 million across 14 regions. Fiscal equalisation aims to equalise the ability of each region to address its natural resource management problems. The MCA approach allows decision makers to weight criteria and define a needs index which forms the basis for allocating funds.