OOS 28
Environmental Conservation on Private Lands – Planning, Implementation, Benefits and Motives of Conservation Measures in the Unprotected Landscape Matrix

Wednesday, August 13, 2014: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
204, Sacramento Convention Center
Organizer:
Michael Drescher, University of Waterloo
Co-organizer:
Zachary S. M. Bogdon, University of Waterloo
Moderator:
Zachary S. M. Bogdon, University of Waterloo
Governments worldwide are working toward goals for conservation of biodiversity and other environmental values, directing much of their efforts at expanding protected area networks. However, the conservation goals in many jurisdictions appear increasingly out of reach. Part of the problem is that protected areas cover only a small part of the land and tend to be isolated from each other by unprotected areas, which often are used for agriculture, forestry or residential purposes with mostly reduced provision of environmental values. The fragmentation of protected areas disrupts flows of organisms, energy and matter, exposes these areas to various negative effects decreasing their habitat value, and limits their ability to provide ecosystem goods and services. Though varying by geography, private lands can cover the majority of the land in a jurisdiction. Consequently, it is increasingly recognized that the landscape matrix of private lands can play a critical role in successful environmental conservation. These private lands can serve as corridors connecting protected areas or can provide a multi-purpose landscape matrix that generates ecosystem goods and services and supports embedded protected areas. However, many questions remain regarding the planning and implementation of private land conservation. One set of questions revolves around landowner engagement in environmental conservation. Compliance-based policies were used frequently in the past and while some policies were successful in conservation planning, others led to mixed results. Consequently, alternative strategies have emerged, for instance the ones increasingly used by land trusts, such as the purchase of private land or the acquisition of conservation easements that ensure conservation of the land in perpetuity. Other novel strategies rely on voluntary conservation by private landowners, whose main motivators for conservation efforts are based on rational choice or socio-psychological approaches. For example, rational choice decisions are targeted by governmental tax-incentive programs that reduce property taxes in exchange for conservation efforts; social-psychological drivers include the affective dimension of landowners’ relationships with their lands and can be encouraged by (non)-governmental recognition programs. We will explore the benefits of private land conservation in support of protected areas and for the provision of environmental goods and services. Further, we will investigate tools, socio-cultural values and motives for landowner engagement in private land conservation and discuss resolutions to land use conflicts.
1:50 PM
2:30 PM
 Grassroots conservation actions by private landholders on small parcels in the urban/rural divide of Australia and beyond
Shelby Gull Laird, Charles Sturt University; Rosemary Black, Charles Sturt University
2:50 PM Cancelled
 An investigation of socio-psychological determinants of private landowner participation in voluntary conservation programs
G. Keith Warriner, University of Waterloo; Michael Drescher, University of Waterloo; Zachary Bogdon, University of Waterloo
3:10 PM
4:20 PM Cancelled
 A comprehensive characterization of private conservation initiatives in Chile
Mariela M. Nuñez-Avila, Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity; Elisa Corcuera, ASI Conserva Chile A.G.
4:40 PM
 The effects of local- and landscape-level habitat variables on avian cavity-nesting species abundance
Jesse M. Wood, Furman University; John E. Quinn, Furman University