Andrew Buckwell

I am an applied environmental and resource economist and social scientist in Griffith Business School and the Griffith Climate Action Beacon. I have significant experience in field research design, execution and analysis, and consulting, specialising in non-market economic valuation, and social benefit cost analysis. My broader research agenda is to define the conditions and the measures that enable communities and resource users to understand the impacts and dependencies of their resource use. The aim of this is to encourage capital to flow naturally towards socially-equitable and ecologically regenerative investments and endeavours, as this is where it finds the best mix of returns. I also have significant experience in consulting on the economics of coastal adaptation, and was lead economic analyst for the Whitsunday Regional Council’s Coastal Hazard Adaptation Strategy Phase 7. I am currently working on a programme of work investigating how managed retreat can be resourced through innovative funding and financing instruments on behalf of Whitsunday Regional Council and Kingborough Council and a project assessing industry readiness to climate change, also for Whitsunday Regional Council. I have also undertaken consultancies assessing the costs and benefits of irrigation schemes in Queensland and assessing the willingness of farmers to engage in water quality improvement programmes. I am currently concluding work on two global, multi-disciplinary research projects: Pacific EcoAdapt, a five-year project aimed at identifying and valuing appropriate ecosystem-based adaptions to climate change, mainly focussed on Vanuatu; and a global primary forests preservation project, which has a focus on understanding the elements of community livelihoods and addressing gaps in forest protection, with case studies in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Melanesia. Prior to joining Griffith Business School, I spent 12 years as a senior digital and web professional, gaining extensive experience in digital strategy, marketing and communications, user experience design, agile project management and solutions implementation, content strategy, and social media marketing. I am a Board Member of the New Economy Network Australia and a member of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.