Desert Uplands Committee landscape linkage auction: An outline and evaluation, main report

In 2006, the Desert Uplands Committee (DUC), in conjunction with the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency and Central Queensland University implemented a multiple bidding round conservation auction in the Southern Desert Uplands region. The focus of the auction was to improve the management of vegetation areas with high biodiversity values on privately owned grazing land, and where possible, to create a linkage across the region. The challenge of designing an auction for landscape linkage in the Desert Uplands had been the focus of one of the national market-based instruments pilot program (NMBIWG 2005). Funding to implement the auction was later secured from the Burdekin Dry Tropics regional NRM group.