Modelling socially optimal land allocations for sugar cane growing in North Queensland: a linked mathematical programming and choice modelling study

A modelling framework is developed to determine the joint economic and envi ronmental net benefits of alternative land allocation strategies. Estimates of community preferences for preservation of natural land, derived from a choice modelling study, are used as input to a model of agricultural produc tion in an optimisation framework. The trade-offs between agricultural prod uction and environmental protection are analysed using the sugar industry o f the Herbert River district of north Queensland as an example. Spatially-d ifferentiated resource attributes and the opportunity costs of natural land determine the optimal tradeoffs between production and conservation for a range of sugar prices.