Landowner Willingness Research Articles

Private Landowner Willingness to Manage Their Land for Carbon Sequestration in New York State

Abstract Efforts to enhance carbon sequestration, including afforestation and reforestation, are critical strategies to meet the New York State (NYS) climate goals. In NYS, converting underutilized lands to mature forests can mitigate 4.9 million metric tons of CO2 annually, but 97% of suitable lands are privately owned. These mitigation figures do not consider landowner willingness to grow mature forest. Drawing on a survey of 979 NYS landowners, we explored interest in growing mature forest, potential barriers, and how they can be mitigated. Survey results indicate landowners seem reasonably interested (about one-third were “very interested”) in converting at least some of their land to mature forest for carbon sequestration. Respondents were most willing to convert land in young forest and shrubland and least willing to convert fallow fields, grassland, and agricultural land. Key barriers are related to inadequate labor and financial resources. Incentives focused on finances most increase willingness but only modestly so. Study Implications: Land availability for carbon sequestration can only be realistically understood if we consider private landowner willingness to grow forests. We observed relatively strong enthusiasm for converting young forest and shrubland. Land conversion proponents could tailor management and communication strategies to owners of these land types. Conversion is tied to overcoming negative attitudes about the potential conflict between current management and managing for carbon sequestration and providing resources for conversion. Landowner willingness was less when the agricultural footprint was greater. With much farmland in NYS, the amount of land available for reforestation may be lower than what landcover-based estimates suggest.

Legitimacy and Wildlife Disease: Should Chronic Wasting Disease be Managed without Government?

Natural resource institutions have embraced a deliberative turn to improve how they solve management problems and promote peacebuilding with and among stakeholders. However, actors who would rather not help decide, understand, evaluate, or implement decisions, or, at least not be dictated to in that regard, pose challenges to democratic governance arrangements. Such an inclination can be prevalent among landowner segments and befuddle efforts to safeguard state trust resources such as wildlife. Specifically, landowners’ decision to self-govern can be problematic for wildlife disease management because voluntarism is critical to curbing the negative effects of disease. Researchers suggest that different types of legitimacy play an important role in explaining obedience, interest, or realized engagement or collaboration. We studied which types of legitimacy drive Texas landowners living in the midst of the deadly and highly infectious chronic wasting disease (CWD) to disengage with state-led disease governance that aims to protect deer, elk, and moose populations. Our survey of 481 landowners revealed that a pathway towards landowner willingness to engage CWD management in Texas requires top-down and bottom-up alignment with conceptions of ideological and consequential legitimacy. Given the results of our study, an evolution in contemporary CWD governance would require elements of both socially constructed instrumentally- and value-rational norms (i.e., CWD management in the right way and for the right reasons) to carve a space for political legitimacy at different levels, with aims of rendering voluntarism to benefit the common good culturally normative.

An integrated approach to prioritize restoration for carnivore conservation in shared landscapes

Global land use change has resulted in the loss and fragmentation of habitats and amplified the pace of species extinction. With carnivores being disproportionately at risk of range contraction, restoration is an important strategy to counter the impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation. While protection of public lands has been the cornerstone of conservation, private lands can play an important supplementary role. India harbors 23 % of the global carnivore species, threatened by a rapidly growing economy and high human densities. Using a social-ecological systems approach, we prioritized private agricultural lands for agroforestry in the buffer area of Pench Tiger Reserve. We applied systematic conservation planning tools and combined data on (1) habitat use of four carnivores (tiger, leopard, dhole, and sloth bear), (2) landowner willingness to modify land use through enrolment in an incentive-based program, and (3) monetary cost of program implementation, to identify priority areas for agroforestry based on their relative cost-effectiveness. Our integrated approach generated a configuration of priority areas that was markedly different than if we selected areas using ecological data only. Over an 8-year period, restoration of ~4900, ~8300 and ~12,000 acres through agroforestry was estimated to have a cumulative cost of USD 56 million, USD 95 million, and USD 140 million, respectively. Partnering with and incentivizing private landowners can expand the effective size of small and fragmented protected areas. Our approach can be applied to other shared landscapes, dominated by private ownership, to identify areas that deliver a compromise between ecological suitability, social acceptability, and economic viability.

Forest carbon incentive programs for non-industrial private forests in Oregon (USA): Impacts of program design on willingness to enroll and landscape-scale program outcomes

Privately-owned forests in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) are important potential carbon sinks and play a large role in carbon sequestration and storage. Non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners constitute a substantial portion of overall forest landownership in productive regions of the PNW; however, little is known about their preferences for non-market incentive programs aimed at increased carbon storage and sequestration, specifically by limiting timber harvest, and how those preferences might impact the outcome of forest carbon programs. We simulated landscape-scale outcomes of hypothetical forest carbon incentive programs in western Oregon (USA) by combining empirical models of NIPF owners' participation with spatially explicit forest carbon storage and sequestration data. We surveyed landowners to determine their willingness to enroll in various hypothetical forest management incentive programs that varied in terms of harvest restrictions, contract length, annual payment and incentive payment amounts, and cost-share percentages, as well as the program framing (e.g., carbon versus forest health). We used multinomial logistic regression to model whether landowners might enroll based on program attributes, landowners' attitudes toward climate change and forest management, past and planned future forest harvest activities, and socio-demographics. We found that 36% of respondents stated that they would probably or definitely enroll in at least one of the hypothetical programs they were shown while 21% of respondents refused all programs that they were offered. Our final model of landowner willingness to enroll indicated that higher annual and higher cost-share payments were the strongest positive predictors of whether landowners would enroll vs. not enroll. Landowners' willingness to enroll was not influenced by program framing as either a “forest carbon” or a “forest health”; however, landowner attitudes toward climate change were the next strongest positive predictor of enrollment after annual and cost-share payments. By simulating landowner enrollment in six policy relevant program scenarios, we illustrate that carefully designed forest carbon incentive programs for NIPF owners could have tangible carbon protection benefits (16.25 to 50.31 MMT CO2e cumulative) at relatively low costs per MT CO2e ($3.60 to $7.70). We highlight tradeoffs between maximizing enrollment in forest carbon incentive programs and providing longer term protection of carbon. This research contributes to the literature on the design of potential forest carbon incentive programs and communication about forest carbon management, as well as aims to aid policy makers and program administrators that seek ways to engage private landowners in carbon-oriented forest management.

Landowner Willingness to Accept Monetary Compensation for Managing Forests for Ecosystem Services in the Southern United States

Abstract Distributional specifications of the willingness-to-accept function affect the accuracy of welfare estimates when the contingent valuation model includes unsure responses. By exponentiating the bid variable, we implemented an improved methodological approach to estimate four discrete choice models reflecting treatment of unsure responses. Landowners required an average compensation of $93 acre−1 year−1 to participate in a 10-year conservation program. The probability of participation was positively influenced by payment amount, concern about wildlife habitat loss, contact frequency with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and education level. Findings will help determine regional-level budgets for various conservation scenarios facilitating an increased production of ecosystem services. Study Implications Conservation agencies can decrease landowner uncertainty that arises from limited information about conservation programs and motivate landowners to enroll in a conservation program facilitating an increased production of ecosystem services by offering adequate monetary incentives. Conservation agencies can provide similar financial compensation for conservation of bottomland hardwoods and pine stands but will most likely need to offer greater compensation for the protection of forests prone from impacts by wildfires, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Available funding should be prioritized for conservation of critical habitats and freshwater sources vulnerable to land disturbances.

Biodiversity conservation in private forests: Factors driving landowner's attitude

In many countries, biodiversity conservation strategies are aimed not only for state land, but also private land. Participation of landowners in conservation programmes can be viewed as a continuum from voluntary by the landowner to force by the existing legislation. The biodiversity conservation system of Latvia represents a case where in certain situations (such as establishment of micro-reserves) strict forest management restrictions can be implemented without acceptance of landowners. This causes conflicts with forest owners, which can negatively affect the success of reaching biodiversity conservation goals. Therefore, we aimed to explore factors driving private forest owner's attitude towards biodiversity conservation in their land. Mixed-mode survey was utilized for gathering information from 386 private forest owners. Ordinal logistic regression (OLS) models were used to analyze relationships between predictor and response variables. Our results suggested that financial dependence on income from forest harvest was the main factor causing negative attitude of landowners towards biodiversity conservation measures for private land of Latvia. This factor was significantly correlated with a forestry background (education, occupation and size of forest land). However, landowner education and general conservation values also influenced landowner willingness to accept conservation measures on private forest land. We highlighted a great potential for voluntary biodiversity conservation mechanisms in Latvia, which could complement existing (regulatory approach based) biodiversity conservation instruments.

Landowners’ willingness to supply agricultural land for conversion into urban uses in peri-urban Ghana

ABSTRACT Agriculture in the peri-urban area is a significant source of income for peri-urban dwellers; however, peri-urban development raises land prices, making it difficult for small-scale farmers to keep their land. Still, studies on peri-urban development and consequent rapid land conversion have not given enough attention to the factors that impact landowners’ willingness to provide land for conversion, especially within the context of communal land ownership in sub-Saharan Africa. Through quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this study investigates landowner willingness to give agricultural land for conversion in peri-urban Wa, Ghana. Between 2009 and 2019, 14.0% of households had sold all of their lands, according to the findings. The supply of land was influenced by economic incentives and land rent. According to the study, local landowners should plan for future generations of the same family to have equitable access to land while still attempting to meet their current socioeconomic demands from it.

Increasing provision of ecosystem services through participation in a conservation program

Grasslands provide a variety of goods and services that benefit humans, but only a few have a market value. Despite the benefits provided, native grasslands continue to be degraded. Lack of a proper valuation, including a monetary value of grassland nonmarket goods and services, has become one of the factors contributing to the degradation trend. The objective of this research was to quantify the cost of increasing the provision of ecosystem services from grassland ecosystems in the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks (GCPO) Landscape Conservation Cooperative geographic area of the U.S. A contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to estimate landowner willingness to accept (WTA) monetary compensation in exchange for implementing management practices preserving grassland ecosystems. The mean WTA compensation was $290.10 per acre per year for a 10-year contract. Required compensation increased with landowner income, frequency of contacts with state wildlife agencies, and percentage change in grassland area. Landowner age and proximity to the nearest local park were negatively associated with WTA. The total cost of preserving ecosystem services, estimated based on WTA, was US$3 billion per year and 57 times larger than the 2016 Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) allocation for this purpose in the amount US$50 million. However, the preservation cost varied from US$1.7 million to 1.1 billion depending upon the number of ecological attributes to be preserved and corresponding levels of ecosystem services. Results will be helpful in quantifying future funding levels necessary for implementation of coordinated conservation activities in grasslands and other ecosystems, prioritizing ecosystem services for restoration, and developing conservation programs in the U.S. and other countries.

Is Hay for the Birds? Investigating Landowner Willingness to Time Hay Harvests for Grassland Bird Conservation.

Simple SummaryGrassland and farmland bird populations are steeply declining worldwide, and conservationists are searching for solutions to prevent their continued losses. Most of these bird populations nest and raise chicks on privately owned land rather than in public protected areas. Thus, to be widely effective, conservation strategies need to engage private landowners. One promising strategy to protect grassland and farmland breeding birds is to avoid harvesting hay during the main bird breeding season, and delay hay harvest until at least 15 July, in order to allow birds to successfully nest and raise young. However, little is known about the willingness of private landowners to alter their hay harvesting practices in order to support bird conservation. We surveyed private landowners with hay production operations in the North American Great Plains to learn whether they were willing to time their hay harvests for bird conservation, and whether livestock ownership, wildlife knowledge, and hunting activity affected landowners’ willingness to time hay harvests for either songbird or game bird conservation, or both. Most respondents expressed willingness to delay hay harvesting for bird conservation. Livestock ownership and wildlife knowledge were positively correlated and hunting activity was negatively correlated with landowners’ willingness to delay hay harvest for bird conservation.Birds in agricultural environments have exhibited steep global population declines in recent decades, and effective conservation strategies targeting their populations are urgently needed. In grasslands used for hay production, breeding birds’ nest success improves substantially if hay harvests are delayed until after mid-July. However, few studies have investigated private hay producers’ willingness to alter their harvesting practices, which is a critical factor for bird conservation where most land is privately owned, such as in the North American Great Plains. We surveyed Nebraska hay producers to examine whether livestock production, wildlife knowledge, and hunting activity affects their willingness to alter haying practices for bird conservation. The majority (60%) of respondents expressed willingness to delay harvesting hay to allow birds time to nest successfully. Livestock producers and those more knowledgeable about wildlife were more willing to delay hay harvests, whereas active hunters were less willing to do so. Our findings suggest that a majority of private producers show a high potential for engaging in grassland bird conservation activities. Landowners’ willingness to participate in bird conservation programs and actions could be further encouraged through extension and education efforts connecting hay producers with information, support, and funding for bird conservation.

Nonindustrial private forest landowner willingness to pay for prescribed burning to lower wildfire hazards

Despite the crucial role nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners play in reducing hazardous fuels across large landscapes, there is lack of information concerning their support and valuation of fuel reduction treatments. This study determined NIPF landowners willingness to pay (WTP) for implementing prescribed burning on their forestland to lower wildfire hazards using a contingent valuation method (CVM). Of 2,000 questionnaires sent, a total of 531 landowners responded to the CV question. Of which, 26% of landowners were willing to pay the given payment amount to reduce wildfire hazard on their land using prescribed burning. The mean WTP was $41.39 per acre with a 95% confidence interval of $14.70 to $66.86 per acre. Landowner tolerance for smoke from prescribed burning, consideration of liability, concern about property damages due to wildfires, and education level were positively related with WTP. Since WTP for implementing prescribed burning was higher than its cost, available budgets can be more efficiently utilized by prioritizing more resources towards technical and educational programs on prescribed burn planning, implementing, and monitoring.

Landowner Perceptions of Legal Liability for Using Prescribed Fire in the Southern Plains, United States

Suppression of fire in the Southern Plains has led to proliferation of woody plants and fuel load accumulation that spurs wildfires. These effects have led to calls for widespread application of prescribed fire to reduce fuel loads, but there is substantial landowner resistance to the use of this land management tool. Here we explore factors that affect perceptions of landowners in the Southern Plains about prescribed fire liability and their willingness to apply this land management tool. This region was selected for the study because of the preponderance of private landholdings and widespread woody plant encroachment. The study used a mail survey of 1 853 landowners in 16 counties in Texas and Oklahoma, resulting in a data set from 680 respondents (37% useable response rate). Logistic regression models were developed to test three hypotheses relating to the likelihood that a landowner will apply prescribed fire. The study corroborated that landowners who perceived higher levels of fire-related legal liability were less likely to apply prescribed fire on their land or assist with its application on other properties. In addition, burn bans were found to inhibit landowner willingness to apply fire during periods that result in higher woody plant mortality. Oklahoma respondents, landowners who believed prescribed fire to be an affordable woody plant management tool, and members of prescribed burning associations (PBAs) were more likely to use prescribed fire. These results have important implications for policies aimed at overcoming resistance to the use of prescribed fire to curb woody plant encroachment and reduce fuel load accumulation. Specifically, language in state statutes pertaining to prescribed fire should be modified to reduce landowner concerns over legal liability; PBAs should be established more widely; and public cost-sharing funds for woody plant management should prioritize prescribed fire.

Opportunities and attitudes of private forest landowners in supplying woody biomass for renewable energy

Woody biomass has been identified as a source of dispatchable, renewable energy. Private lands supply the majority of the wood-based pellets that is produced in the southeastern United States (SE US) and shipped to countries in the European Union (EU) for energy generation. To assess the perspectives of potential suppliers of woody biomass in the SE US, nonindustrial private forest landowners were surveyed in the fuelsheds of the two primary ports for wood pellets exported to the EU. The survey assessed owners' characteristics, attitudes, and future management plans. Survey results were examined to explore the relationships among these factors and owners' intentions for providing material for wood-based energy. The results indicate that forest landowners have multiple reasons for maintaining their forest land, with more than 40% of the owners ranking timber production as a very important reason. Furthermore, the majority of landowners would be willing to provide woody biomass for producing bioenergy. Among factors that would enhance landowners' willingness to provide woody biomass for energy, technical assistance to improve stand productivity and future value was the most popular option, followed by reducing fire and disease risk, long-term markets, and high prices. Landowner willingness to provide woody material for bioenergy also varied depending on demographics including age and gender, property characteristics including holding size and distance to residence, and perceptions regarding the impact on forest value of wood pellet demand and the viability of bioenergy as an alternative to fossil energy.

Greenways, recreational access and landowner willingness to accept: a contingent valuation study of farmers in Ireland

There are ambitious plans to construct an extensive network of off-road walking and cycling routes, known as greenways, across Ireland. However, land acquisition has proven challenging in some rural areas. This paper uses a contingent valuation study, based on the Teagasc National Farm Survey (NFS) of Ireland, to explore farmers’ willingness to participate in greenway development. The results reveal that farmers are split on the issue of greenway land acquisition: approximately half would not allow a route to run through their farm, irrespective of compensation. Farmers’ main concerns in this regard are: insurance, impact on farming operations and nuisance/crime. Of the farmers willing to participate in greenway development, the mean (once-off) payment required is €56,000 per kilometre of greenway length. These findings suggest that Irish Government agencies and local authorities must work to alleviate farmers’ concerns and undertake extensive consultation to yield acceptable route options.

Transfers of landowner willingness to accept: A convergent validity and reliability test using choice experiments in two Canadian watersheds

AbstractWe examined the reliability and validity of transferring estimates of marginal willingness to accept and compensating surplus. In doing so, we used data from two case studies applying choice experiments to elicit landowner preferences for incentive‐based wetland conservation programs in two adjacent watersheds in Southern Ontario, Canada (Grand and Upper Thames Rivers in parallel in 2013). The choice experiment data were modeled in willingness to accept space using a generalized multinomial logit. Transfer reliability was investigated by calculating transfer errors, while validity was investigated by testing the equality of utility functions as well as by assessing the similarity of welfare estimates using traditional hypothesis tests and equivalence tests. The main findings are that transfers of willingness to accept are similar to existing transfers of willingness to pay in terms of validity and reliability. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis finds that including demographic variables in the choice model can lead to lower transfer validity though does not substantially affect reliability. Though further research is required, our results suggest that willingness to accept can be transferred as part of policy analyses.

Small-scale forestry and carbon offset markets: An empirical study of Vermont Current Use forest landowner willingness to accept carbon credit programs.

This study investigates the preferences of small forest landowners regarding forest carbon credit programs while documenting characteristics of potentially successful frameworks. We designed hypothetical carbon credit programs with aggregated carbon offset projects and requirements of existing voluntary and compliance protocols in mind. We administered a mail survey to 992 forest landowners in Vermont’s Current Use Program utilizing best-worst choice, a novel preference elicitation technique, to elicit their preferences about these programs. We found that small forest landowners see revenue as the most important factor in a carbon credit program and the duration of the program as the least important factor. Landowners reported that shorter program duration, higher revenue, and lower withdrawal penalties positively impact their willingness to accept forest carbon credit programs. Notably, our study includes carbon credit program implementer as a key program attribute, allowing us to quantify landowners’ tradeoffs between non-profit, for-profit, and government organizations. Overall, we found that landowners significantly prefer working with a non-profit organization. Based on monetary estimates of willingness-to-accept compensation, our results suggest that aggregated forest carbon offset projects incorporating small forest landowners could be piloted successfully in Vermont by non-profit organizations while maintaining relatively strict guidelines of existing carbon offset protocols.

Mississippi Private Landowner Willingness for Diverting Land to Growing Short Rotation Woody Crops for Bioenergy Enterprises

Mississippi Private Landowner Willingness for Diverting Land to Growing Short Rotation Woody Crops for Bioenergy Enterprises

How do sociocultural factors shape rural landowner responses to the prospect of perennial bioenergy crops?

Renewable energy transitions in the U.S. have included growing interest in promoting perennial bioenergy crop production within different rural landscapes. However, landowners’ receptivity to such land use and development in mixed-use landscapes is not well understood. Previous research has shown that economic motivations and market factors contribute to farmer decision-making about growing energy crops in working landscapes, while research on public responses to renewable energy technologies has found that sense of place and symbolic meanings regarding land, nature, and technologies are influential. The goal of this study is to integrate these strands of research to examine the influence of sociocultural factors on both landowners’ general support for local bioenergy crop production and their willingness to participate directly by growing dedicated energy crops in mixed-use landscapes. The study draws on a survey completed by 908 landowners and farmers in rural New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Seeing bioenergy as a broadly progressive technology significantly increased the likelihood of support for local bioenergy crop production, as did having a college degree and larger landholdings, while sense of place factors were not significant. Seeing bioenergy as a progressive technology also significantly increased the likelihood of being willing to grow bioenergy crops on one’s own land, as did having a college degree, knowledge about switchgrass, having idle land, as well as concerns about bioenergy markets. This study demonstrates that in addition to other variables, sociocultural factors influence both support for local bioenergy crop production and landowner willingness to grow bioenergy crops on their own land.

Characteristics of Virginia's Private Forest Landowners and Their Attitudes toward Harvesting

Abstract Nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners own 62 percent of Virginia's forestland and determine the likelihood of its harvest and utilization. As many studies have found, NIPF landowners are diverse in management goals, and many factors can affect a landowner's willingness to harvest. Although many landowner surveys have been conducted, adequate information regarding the characteristics of NIPF landowners and their willingness to harvest in Virginia is lacking. Given new markets for wood in the state, there is considerable interest in examining fiber supply availability to determine the sustainability of an expanded forest and renewable energy industry. Landowners and their willingness to supply timber play a vital role in future resource availability. During 2014, a survey was mailed to 3,000 NIPF landowners who owned at least 10 acres of wooded land. Using a base question of willingness to harvest, groups across the state were compared to determine factors that affect their behavior. We found that the variables income, age, forested acres owned, and forest management were all significant and positively related to willingness to harvest. Knowledge of the characteristics of forest landowners and their attitudes toward harvesting can guide efforts to engage more landowners.

The Contribution of Amenities to Landowner Income: Cases in Spanish and Californian Hardwood Rangelands

Rangeland economists have noted that people tend to pay far more for ranches and rangelands than can be justified by the potential income from livestock operations alone. This gap in price can be explained when the value of the amenity benefits from owning a ranch and the capital gains from the rangeland investment are integrated as part of the “income” accruing to the landowner. In this paper, we apply an accounting framework that takes such values into account, the Agroforestry Accounting System, to three hardwood rangeland case studies in Andalucía (southern Spain) and three in California. We estimate how commercial operations, private amenities consumed by the landowner, and capital gains contribute to landowner income and rangeland investment profitability in these case studies. Results show that private amenity consumption and capital gains make the greatest contribution to landowner income. When these income components are included in the estimations, total real profitability ranges from 2.7% to 4.5% in the Spanish cases and from 4.5% to 7.8% in the California cases, rates that are competitive with alternative investments. Our results suggest that conservation programs may be strengthened by enhancing or building on amenity benefits to landowners, motivating them to engage in and continue with these programs. In addition, landowner willingness to pay for amenities may increase the cost-efficiency of programs that would enhance the provision of these, or of closely related, amenities.

Evaluating non-industrial private forest landowner willingness to manage for forest carbon sequestration in the southern United States

Forest carbon sequestration is considered one of the most efficient strategies for climate change mitigation, and forests provide significant carbon storage in the United States. Non-industrial private forest (NIPF) ownership is the dominant ownership group in the southern US, but little is understood about landowners' willingness to manage forests for carbon sequestration. This study examines NIPF landowner willingness to delay final timber harvest for additional carbon sequestration despite unknowns about positive or negative impacts to profitability that result from carbon price fluctuations. Survey data from 735 landowners in the southern United States were used to estimate a probit model analyzing their participation behavior. Landowner willingness to participate in carbon sequestration practices was 55%, 25%, and 16% when such practices were more profitable, revenue neutral or less profitable than timber management only, respectively. Although many landowners would require a significant monetary incentive to participate in carbon sequestration, others would participate with little or no incentive. Those having recreational goals for their property were the most likely group to participate in carbon sequestration. Management changes (i.e., management plan and verification requirements) and carbon revenue were the two most important determinants of their probability of participation. In summary, this study provides a better understanding of the relationship between landowner participation and socioeconomic details, sequestration program attributes, attitudes, and behaviors. Designing education, incentive, and assistance programs that align with landowners' recreational goals would result in a low-cost carbon sequestration policy.