The quote is from the Hon John Kerin, Commonwealth Minister for Primary Industry, in Toowoomba in July 1983. It reflects an increasing and widespread recognition of land degradation as a national environmental problem of major dimensions. Indeed, from an economic perspective, land degradation shares a number of analytical similarities with traditional environmental problems such as pollution, but there are also some important differences. Land degradation is a complex phenomenon taking a variety of forms. It has effects which are often difficult to trace, measure and evaluate, and it has significance not just for individual landholders but for the community as a whole.

Other chapters in this monograph examine the physical aspects of land degradation, the legal and institutional setting and the contribution of different disciplines to formulating government policies. This chapter argues that an economic-based environmental perspective can help illuminate the problem and contribute to the development of practical and effective responses. It offers a framework for analysis of the social costs of land degradation and some thoughts on the way in which an awareness of these costs can assist government policy making.

This chapter focuses primarily on the offsite effects of land degradation, that is those which occur or are experienced away from the site of the action causing degradation. Examples include the costs of downstream salinity or turbidity. In economic terms these are externalities and they comprise a large part of the social costs of land degradation.