The effect of engagement in private lands research on landowner conservation knowledge, attitudes, awareness, and behavioral intentions

Abstract

ABSTRACT Landowners and scientists often interact during conservation research projects on private lands, creating the opportunity for impactful outreach efforts. However, this potential has received little attention in the literature. This is particularly true for situations where landowners interact with researchers, but do not actively participate in data collection (a “traditional research” model that contrasts to participatory science projects). In this paper, we explore and compare the effects that engaging landowners in traditional versus participatory science research has on landowner conservation knowledge, attitudes, awareness, and behavioral intentions. We find similar effects across both treatment groups, with involvement leading to greater knowledge, increased awareness, more positive attitudes, and/or more behavioral intentions regarding conservation among participants. However, landowners reported limited tangible behavior change during our study. Our results suggest that engaging with landowners during private lands research may be valuable to conservation, but further research is needed on how to optimize these interactions.