Abstract
Conservation easements are the fastest growing private conservation strategy in the United States. However, mechanisms to assess private land conservation as well as their support by the general public are not well understood. This study uses the ecosystem services framework for assessing existing private lands in Idaho and identifies areas for future conservation easements. Using conservation targets of the land trust as a guide for selecting ecosystem services, we (a) mapped the spatial delivery of conservation targets across public and private lands, (b) explored public awareness in terms of social importance and vulnerability, and (c) mapped future priority areas by characterizing conservation bundles. We found that public lands provided the highest levels of conservation targets, and we found no difference in conservation target provision between private areas and conservation easements. The spatial characterization of conservation target bundles identified potential future priority areas for conservation easements, which can guide planning of land trust conservation efforts.
Highlights
The Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD 1992) urges to establish a system of protected areas for the in situ preservation of global biodiversity and maintenance of Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.ecosystem services (ES, defined as the benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems; MEA 2005)
Values of cultural heritage tend to occur in mostly flat areas of lower elevation, as this conservation target is tied closely with the crop and cattle agriculture that occurs in these areas
While this study provides a case study example on how to apply interdisciplinary research methods to land trust conservation easement efforts, future studies should closely collaborate with conservation organizations throughout the entire research process in order to achieve the best results for conservation management and decision (Graves et al 2019)
Summary
Due to limited resources availability for establishing new protected areas, countries are required to design and implement complementary area-based conservation policies (CBD 2010) In this sense, governments are encouraged to cooperate with private initiatives in developing methods for promoting conservation strategies in collaboration with local agencies and NGOs. In recent decades, the implementation of conservation strategies on private lands, hereafter private conservation areas (Pasquini et al 2010), is increasingly being recognized as a strategy to complement current protected areas networks (Cortes-Campano et al 2019). Private conservation areas protect several million hectares of natural habitat and cultural landscapes across the world (e.g., Jones et al 2005; Sims-Castley et al 2005) These new private conservation efforts are commonly implemented by practitioners as a strategy to deliver benefits to society that contribute to social-welfare goals, for instance, through job creation where the land is managed for recreational activities and other profitable business (Chacon 2005; Rambaldi et al 2005). New methodological approaches are required to further understand the contribution of these spaces to global conservation targets (Merenlender et al 2004; Pasquini et al 2010)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
