Are health benefits an externality to the provision of environmental services?
An externality is a benefit or cost due to an activity that is not accounted for when assessing the benefits and costs of the activity. Externalities may be positive, such as when health benefits generated through participation in the supply of environmental services by Aboriginal people are not taken into account by government policy makers. Externalities may also be negative, such as when overgrazing, which results in an increased incidence of dust storms with consequent health impacts28, goes unpriced. Failure to include health benefits, when accounting for the benefits of Aboriginal land management, will result in land management being under supplied. As a result, the joint supply of health and environmental services will be sub-optimal. Alternatively, goods and services that result in negative externalities will be oversupplied, as per the overgrazing example above. An example of a positive externality is patch burning, such as is used by Aboriginal women in some central Australia
