Private landowners perceive positive impacts to their land stewardship following involvement in a conservation research program

Abstract

AbstractConservation research programs can encourage conservation of biodiversity of working landscapes by influencing the conservation behaviors of private landowners who participate in the program. However, specific conservation behavior outcomes following landowner participation in a conservation research program, as well as the drivers that influence their engagement in these behaviors, remain unclear. We interviewed landowners that had provided property access to a Smithsonian conservation research program to conduct ecological research. We investigated (a) how landowners perceived participation in a conservation research program influenced their engagement in conservation behaviors and (b) how landowners perceived characteristics of the program influenced their engagement in conservation behaviors. We found that interviewees' perceived participation in a conservation research program influenced their engagement in land stewardship behaviors more commonly than social environmentalism or environmental citizenship behaviors. Interviewees perceived that program characteristics such as events, on‐site survey interactions, and landowner reports most frequently influenced their engagement in conservation behaviors. Our findings suggest that conservation programs may increase their influence on landowner conservation behavior engagement through fostering direct interactions among landowners, their peers, and researchers; training staff and citizen scientists in effective science communication skills; and tailoring program communications to their target audience.