INFFER is a framework designed to assist with decision making about investment in the environment and natural resources. INFFER gives priority to highly valued natural assets, that are highly threatened or degraded, with high technical feasibility of avoiding or repairing that damage, and high adoptability of the required works by relevant land managers. It can operate at a range of scales. It is used to develop and assess projects for assets such as natural habitat, rivers, wetlands, threatened species, agricultural land, lakes, parks and reserves. An important feature of INFFER is that it assists users to develop projects that are internally consistent -- their delivery mechanisms would really deliver the required on-ground action that are required to achieve a specific, measurable, time-bound goal.

Nineteen of Australia's 56 regional environmental management bodies have used INFFER or are in the process of trialling it. State government officers in Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales have been involved in a range of INFFER assessments and its role as a guiding framework at the state level is in under consideration in the first two of those states. INFFER was the only environmental planning tool recommended by the Australian Government in the 2009 round of applications under the Caring for our Country program. A number of Non-Government Organisations in Australia are interested in using INFFER.

We face a difficult dilemma: there are limited public resources for protecting and improving the environment, but the level of response required to protect any particular asset can be large - often much larger than has historically been provided through public programs. For some environmental assets it is quite feasible to make a big difference to their condition, while for others the problems are more intractable. For these reasons, it is essential to undertake a thorough and systematic approach to deciding which environmental assets should get funding, and what sorts of policy responses are appropriate. The need to make environmental funding more business-like has been well recognised, but there are few practical tools available to make it happen. INFFER fills this need.

In addition, many environmental projects are funded and implemented without sufficient attention to their internal consistency -- will the projects' delivery mechanisms really deliver the desired on-ground changes, and will those on-ground changes really deliver the intended improvement in condition of the natural asset? The INFFER process delivers projects that, according to the best available information, would achieve this.

The approach is squarely focused on achieving outcomes for natural assets in projects that offer high value for money. INFFER requires environmental managers to be more explicit in identifying the highest-value assets, the threats they face, the degree of current or future damage they face, the technical feasibility of reducing that damage, and the adoptability of relevant works by land managers. This information is integrated to identify case-specific recommendations. This is done using an innovative “Public: Private Benefits Framework” [Three pager (35K)] and a Benefit: Cost Index.

Our experiences in applying INFFER (and before that, SIF3) at the grassroots level have generated a number of lessons and implications for the design of NRM policy. For example, policy needs to adopt a more outcome-oriented approach, including requiring that investment proposals are developed in a more systematic and thorough way. Proposals need to make best use of science and of economic and social information, integrated well with local knowledge and local values. Guidance to regional bodies needs to go beyond principles and processes.

● Discussion paper: "Delivering on the promise of Caring for our Country" 2 pages (13K html)

● Policy implications from the SIF3 project Seven pager (61K pdf)

URL: www.inffer.org

Copyright © David J. Pannell, 2009
Last revised: August 20, 2009