99th ESA Annual Meeting (August 10 -- 15, 2014)

OOS 28

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

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.