Participation In Conservation Programs Research Articles

Utilizing FSA conservation loan programs to support farm conservation activities

PurposeThe Farm Service Agency (FSA) conservation loan program was introduced in the 2008 Farm Bill to provide additional credit to assist producers implementing approved Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) conservation projects. This paper explores why this program has been widely underutilized despite an overall increase in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Conservation Program participation.Design/methodology/approachThe FSA administrative loan data are merged with NRCS program participation and payments data for 2010–2021. The share of project costs paid by producers and resulting savings achieved by farmers participating in both programs if their cost-share portion was paid by FSA loans are estimated, as well as the impact on farmer conservation spending under different estimates of increased participation.FindingsA significant share of FSA farmers are likely to take advantage of NRCS programs, with the majority of participants paying under $25,000 in cost-share portions. These loans are less suited to guaranteed conservation loans and more appropriate for the discontinued direct conservation loan program. Few FSA borrowers participating in NRCS cost-share programs pay more than $50,000 in cost-share portions. These loans would receive the majority of benefits from interest reduction schemes under the current guaranteed loan program.Practical implicationsOur results and suggestions provide valuable information when discussing the Guaranteed Conservation Loan Program in the 2023 Farm Bill legislation.Originality/valueNo prior research has attempted to merge FSA guaranteed or direct loan data with conservation program participation and payment data, focused on producer cost-share levels or the FSA Guaranteed Conservation Loan Program in the last decade, making this study a valuable contribution to the literature.

9 Practical Considerations for Adaptive Strategies By United States Grazing Land Managers with a Changing Climate

Abstract We outline practical considerations for grazing land adaptations with a changing climate, with an emphasis on the ranch operation scale and specific attention to directional climate changes and increased climate variability. These adaptive strategies fall into two themes: flexibility and learning under uncertainty. Ranches and livestock operations with greater land, social, or other capital resources may have more flexibility. Risk can be reduced for managers (ranchers, farmers, operators, and livestock managers) through participation in conservation or farm policy programs and/or market-based approaches. Bolstering adaptive capacity across landscapes and time can originate from social capital of operators and strategic collaborations among managers and scientists. As climate diverges from historical baselines and the realm of managers’ experiential knowledge, new conceptual frameworks are needed to structure conversations, influence research relevancy and impact, and drive imaginative solutions among researchers, managers, and local communities for socio-ecological systems. We provide simplified frameworks to help guide conversation, future research, and new imaginative solutions for systems-scale knowledge needs and adaptation to address increasingly uncertain and complex change at multiple scales. Practical considerations for adaptive strategies by grazing land managers with a changing climate will be accelerated through 1) collaborative efforts among managers and explicitly with science-management partnerships becoming more mainstream, 2) co-produced research with managers and researchers at ranch-scales, 3) development of communities of practice and associated learning opportunities, and 4) continued co-development and advancement of technologies and tools that result in high uptake adoption by ranch managers.

The role of learning sources in familiarity with conservation programs: the gendered case of family forest landowners in Georgia, United States

ABSTRACT Voluntary incentive programs exist to encourage the conservation and sustainable management of privately owned forests. This study of Georgia family forest landowners used a gender-focussed approach to examine: the extent to which learning sources predict landowners’ familiarity with forest conservation programs; the association between familiarity with and participation in conservation programs; and landowners’ familiarity with forest-based ecosystem services (ESs). We analysed data (N = 223) from a mail survey using Ordinary Least Squares models to predict landowners’ familiarity with conservation programs, tested the association between familiarity with and participation in conservation programs, and evaluated landowners’ familiarity with ESs using qualitative content analysis. Professional forest-management advice and training were associated with familiarity with conservation programs, but gender (being female) was a negative predictor. There was a slight association between familiarity with and participation in conservation programs. In comparison to women, men were more familiar with ESs, and this familiarity is linked to the effectiveness of learning sources. We conclude that learning sources are crucial for information dissemination. We recommend improving professional advice giving to boost participation in conservation programs and raise landowners’ awareness of ESs. Particular attention should be given to women, who are a growing segment of forest landowners’ population in the United States.

Farmer typologies integrating latent and observed characteristics: Insights for soil and water conservation outreach

One of the fundamental rules of effective communication is to “know your audience.” When engaging farmers in conservation in the U.S. and elsewhere where their participation is voluntary, communication should start with the fundamental recognition that farmers are heterogeneous in many ways; their attitudes, values, and motivations, as well as their farms’ biophysical and economic characteristics, can influence their behaviors. Previous typology research in Iowa, USA using data from a panel survey of farmers, revealed heterogeneity by identifying four types of farmers—Conservationists, Deliberative, Productivists, and Traditionalists—based on latent class analysis of variables measuring varied dimensions of awareness, attitudes, beliefs, perceived motivations, and barriers to practice adoption. The study presented in this article advances the typology by associating observable variables from the same survey (e.g., farmer demographics, farm enterprises, participation in conservation programs, adoption of conservation practices) with the four farmer types. The Conservationist type was the most educated and indicated a high intention of adopting cover crops. The Deliberative type tended not to have a conservation plan with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service. The Productivist farmer farmed the most land, rented and owned, and had the highest no-till implementation in land size and percentage of the group. The Traditionalist type rented the least amount of land. We expect outreach professionals, watershed coordinators, and conservation practitioners can use observable characteristics to segment the farmer population and improve conservation messages by tailoring them to the specific farmer types, leading to a higher return on investment in terms of money, time, and goodwill.

Analisis Partisipasi Masyarakat Dalam Program Konservasi Aliran Sungai Brang Biji Kabupaten Sumbawa Terhadap Kelestarian Lingkungan

Rivers are an important element in the hydrological cycle and have a crucial role in providing clean water, supporting plant and animal life, and meeting human needs in various sectors. This study aims to analyze the participation of the river flow community on the environmental sustainability of the Brang Biji River, Sumbawa Regency. This study uses a mixed research method that combines quantitative and qualitative approaches with data collection techniques through interviews with informants, direct field observations and distribution of questionnaires to respondents, namely the people in the Brang Biji river and other secondary data collection in the form of written data from various libraries and photographs. documentation during research. The results showed that the value of community participation in efforts to preserve the Brang Biji River was relatively low at 46.825%, which means that it was not yet included in the participation level of 62.50% - 81.24% which was declared "participating". However, when viewed from the results of the interviews contained in the questionnaire, it was stated that only 25% participated while 65% of the community admitted that they had never participated in efforts to maintain and preserve the river flow. Community participation in various conservation programs will increase their awareness of the importance of maintaining environmental sustainability and can also contribute significantly to protecting river flows.

Exploring motives for participation in a perpetual easement program: Going beyond financial incentives

Private land conservation has become an important element of the global conservation portfolio. Often, landowners are encouraged to participate in private land conservation with financial incentives. However, there is a concern that financial incentives may be limited given the ephemeral nature of funding. Financial incentives also have the potential to crowd-out participation from landowners motivated by altruistic factors rather than financial ones. These concerns underscore the importance of understanding drivers of participation in conservation programs. While there is a plethora of studies examining motivations for participation in term-limited conservation programs, there are far fewer that look at landowners' reasons for participating in perpetual programs. We examined landowners' non-financial motivations for participation in a United States Fish and Wildlife perpetual easement program using several analytical approaches. We first looked at correlations between the likelihood of participation in the easement program and survey respondent's beliefs, values, norms, and perceived behavioral control using a Bayesian regression analysis. Next, using a cluster analysis we segmented our landowner sample into two groups, tested for differences between the group theoretical constructs, and looked for patterns in geographic distributions of the clusters. Our results suggested that individuals who accepted responsibility for habitat protection and recognized habitat threats were more likely to have participated in the easement program. We did not find significant demographic patterns in our cluster analysis but did see differences across the tested theoretical constructs of theory of planned behavior and value-belief norm theory. Further exploration of variation revealed potential for conservation opportunities and allowed us to make recommendations for future policy actions.

Practical considerations for adaptive strategies by US grazing land managers with a changing climate

AbstractWe outline practical considerations for grazing land adaptations with a changing climate, with an emphasis on the ranch operation scale and specific attention to directional climate changes and increased climate variability. These adaptive strategies fall into two themes: flexibility and learning under uncertainty. Ranches and livestock operations with greater land, social, or other capital resources may have more flexibility. Risk can be reduced for managers (ranchers, farmers, operators, and livestock managers) through participation in conservation or farm policy programs and/or market‐based approaches. Bolstering adaptive capacity across landscapes and time can originate from social capital of operators and strategic collaborations among managers and scientists. As climate diverges from historical baselines and the realm of managers’ experiential knowledge, new conceptual frameworks are needed to structure conversations, influence research relevancy and impact, and drive imaginative solutions among researchers, managers, and local communities for socio‐ecological systems. We provide simplified frameworks to help guide conversation, future research, and new imaginative solutions for systems‐scale knowledge needs and adaptation to address increasingly uncertain and complex change at multiple scales. Practical considerations for adaptive strategies by grazing land managers with a changing climate will be accelerated through (1) collaborative efforts among managers and explicitly with science–management partnerships becoming more mainstream, (2) co‐produced research with managers and researchers at ranch scales, (3) development of communities of practice and associated learning opportunities, and (4) continued co‐development and advancement of technologies and tools that result in high uptake adoption by ranch managers.

Evaluating the tradeoff between cost effectiveness and participation in agricultural conservation programs

AbstractUsing a survey of 430 farmer respondents in the Boone and North Raccoon River watersheds in Iowa, we examine the impacts of three program innovations—reverse auctions, spatially targeted payments, and higher offered payments—on agricultural conservation program cost effectiveness and participation by farmers. We combine farmer responses to a discrete choice experiment offering voluntary conservation contracts with township‐level estimates of per‐acre nitrogen reductions from each practice derived from the process‐based ecohydrological Soil and Water Assessment Tool model. Using a random‐parameters logit model, we show that both cost‐reducing and benefit‐boosting interventions reduce budgetary costs per projected pound of nitrogen removed from the watershed for each practice and thus are more cost effective than the prevailing current cost‐share programs. However, we find that these interventions can reduce participation by 30%–70%. Our policy simulations show that even with large budgets, the watershed‐level nitrogen reduction from all policy interventions remains far below the policy targets set by the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. Furthermore, we find cover crop contracts are far more cost effective than no‐till/strip‐till split nitrogen application contracts.

Rice producer enrollment and retention in a USDA regional conservation partnership program in the southern United States

Private lands conservation is critical to maintain available and quality natural resources in agriculture-dominated landscapes. Financial capital and technical assistance incentives are a primary tool to recruit and retain voluntary participation in private lands conservation programs and, subsequently, to induce persistence of innovative conservation practices. Fundamental to program success is to evaluate how, why, and to what extent incentives and program characteristics motivate participation and persistence. This study draws on diffusion of innovations’ attributes of innovation as our conceptual and interpretive framework to qualitatively explore and describe program participation and persistence of on-farm water, nutrient, and wildlife habitat management practices among a cohort of rice (<i>Oryza sativa</i> L.) producers enrolled in the Rice Stewardship Program (RSP) in the southern United States. A total of 50 interviews were conducted between January of 2019 and July of 2019 in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Findings suggest the program’s lack of complexity (practices were simple to enact) and relative advantage (practices were viewed as better than previous practices) were primary motivations that influenced initial and continued participation, as well as the persistence of specific practices. Compatibility with current on-farm practices and the observability of outcomes or benefits to program participation and its practices were reported consistently but as secondary motivations. Nutrient management practices were observed as having the highest potential persistence as these practices were perceived to be compatible, observable, and relatively advantageous, particularly in relation to the region’s existing nutrient stewardship framework. As few evaluations of private lands conservation programs specific to rice agriculture exist, our findings offer practical insights for managers to consider program evaluation or design that is based on the established innovation attributes framework common to other agricultural contexts.

Private landowners' childhood nature experiences affect their feelings of connectedness-to-nature and land stewardship as adults

Achieving land conservation goals cannot be accomplished with policies aimed at public lands alone but critically depends on private land stewardship. Therefore, understanding what motivates private landowners to engage in land stewardship is vital. Connection with nature is a more recently developed construct that provides additional explanations for pro-environmental behaviors, next to more established social-psychological constructs. We investigated the interactions between childhood experiences in nature as well as adults' connection with nature and environmental concerns, and how these affect private landowners' stewardship behaviors. We collected data with a large survey of 1200 Ontario landowners and analyzed the 598 responses with structural equation modeling. We conducted additional analyses to investigate possible effects of landowner demographic characteristics using bootstrap validation. Our results suggest that childhood experiences in nature affect adults' connection with nature and land stewardship behaviors, but not their environmental concerns. In turn, connection with nature may affect private land stewardship behaviors indirectly through environmental concerns as well as directly. Some of these relationships were modified by landowner employment status, income, participation in conservation programs, and political orientation. We speculate that landowners' engagement with environmental topics, their perception of personal responsibility for environmental issues, and their exposure to environmental degradation, influence social-psychological relationships that precede the enactment of private land stewardship behaviors. Reduced childhood experiences in nature may be a contributing factor that is limiting private land stewardship behaviors and constraining the achievement of land conservation goals.

Environmental Conservation in Malaysian Local Government: Issues and Recommendation

The government of Malaysia is committed and receptive to environment conservation efforts. The study's explicit goals will now be as follows: a) Determine community participation techniques in environmental conservation programmes; b) Detect concerns and hindrances to community participation in environmental conservation programmes; and c) Suggest the most effectual community participation approaches in environmental conservation programmes. We spoke to eight main informants from three tiers of local governments. The observations were organised using NVivo. Community participation is hampered by a lack of enthusiasm and understanding, as well as a lack of workforce and finance. 9AN Keywords: Community participation, environmental conservation, local government, SDGs eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning &amp; Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7i20.3502

Irrigation Water Management Tools and Alternative Irrigation Sources Trends and Perceptions by Farmers from the Delta Regions of the Lower Mississippi River Basin in South Central USA

This article describes the opinions and perceptions of farmers on water management tools that conserve groundwater and on alternative sources of water for irrigation. The analysis is based on a survey of producers (N=466) across the Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB) areas of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missouri. Summary statistics of practice usage across the region and for each state are presented. A Poisson count model is applied to the data to identify factors that influence the number of groundwater-conserving practices employed. The number of irrigated acres, years of farming, annual income level, perception of groundwater problems, and participation in conservation programs have statistically significant association with the number of practices employed. Years of farming experience is the only factor negatively associated with the number of practices employed, while participation in conservation programs has the largest magnitude effect on that number. These results provide evidence that sponsored conservation programs increase the number of conservation practices adopted by farmers. This insight is useful for producer collectives, policy makers, and program managers to design and target of conservation programs across the LMRB.

Environmental Concerns and Stewardship Behaviors Among Rural Landowners: What Supports Farmers and Non-farmers in Being Good Stewards?

Intensive agriculture is a main factor of biodiversity and ecosystem services loss globally. It is therefore of great importance to understand how rural landowners are managing their lands and how environmental stewardship behaviors could be strengthened. Farming and non-farming rural landowners are often considered a homogenous group. In reality, however, they vary by their histories, attitudes, interests, and resources. While many rural landowners manage their lands with environmental values in mind, others may struggle to do so. Ignoring this diversity poses the risk that planning and policy for sustainable agriculture are less effective than they could be. Hence, it is of interest to understand the variety of environmental perceptions and stewardship behaviors across these varied groups. To help addressing this knowledge gap, we conducted a survey of 1,200 farming and non-farming rural landowners, using Ontario as a case study. We specifically investigated whether farming landowners differed from non-farming landowners in expressed environmental concerns and stewardship behaviors, as well as what the roles are of participation in conservation incentive programs, demographic factors, and landholding characteristics. We analyzed survey answers with logistic regression and text analysis. Our results suggest that farming landowners are generally less environmentally concerned than non-farming landowners. However, it appears that this difference may be less driven by farm ownership than by contextual factors, such as landowner age and participation in conservation programs. Participation in conservation programs was more pronounced for non-farming landowners and was associated with higher likelihood of environmental concerns and engaging with stewardship behaviors. In contrast, higher age emerged as predictor of lower environmental concerns. In addition, we found that cost factors and knowledge needs were important barriers for stewardship behaviors across farming and non-farming rural landowners. Based on our results, we are making recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of agricultural sustainability planning and policy in Ontario, focusing on reducing financial and knowledge barriers to pro-environmental land management behaviors.

Three Barriers to Effective Programs with Payment for Ecosystem Services: Behavioral Responses in a Computer-Based Experiment

Financial incentives in the form of payment for ecosystem services (PES) can encourage participation in voluntary conservation programs, but real-world experience with PES is limited for services such as the provision of endangered species habitats. A computer-based laboratory experiment with 139 US college students as subjects suggests there are three barriers to effective PES programs: (1) financial rewards can crowd out altruism—low-level PES in the experiment was less effective than the same program without PES; (2) landowners may assuage guilt over destroying habitats by making contributions to ineffective conservation programs—participants often paired destruction of habitat with token contributions to conservation efforts; and (3) landowners may strategically exit conservation agreements in ways that are detrimental to wildlife—a large proportion of participants chose to leave agreements and destroy habitats when the PESs were structured without credible deterrence of an early exit. Fortunately, the results of the experiment also suggest research to overcome these barriers by ensuring that PES financial incentives are scaled and structured to effectively promote conservation. The lessons from this study—though they issue from the particular context of this experiment—provide suggestions about how to structure benefit sharing schemes that could be used to promote conservation in a range of settings.

Evaluation of the HearWell Pilot Program: A Participatory Total Worker Health® Approach to Hearing Conservation.

Our objective was to pilot test HearWell, an intervention created to preserve hearing among highway maintainers, by using a participatory Total Worker Health® (TWH) approach to designing, implementing and evaluating interventions. Regional maintenance garages were randomized to control (n = 6); HearWell (n = 4) or HearWell Design Team (n = 2) arms. Maintainer representatives from the HearWell Design Team garages identified barriers to hearing health and collaborated to design interventions including a safety leadership training for managers, a noise hazard management scheme to identify noise levels and indicate the hearing protection device (HPD) needed, and a comprehensive HearWell training video and protocol. These worker-designed interventions, after manager input, were delivered to the HearWell Design Team and the HearWell garages. Control garages received standard industry hearing conservation training. Periodic surveys of workers in all 12 garages collected information on the frequency of HPD use and a new hearing climate measure to evaluate changes in behaviors and attitudes over the study period and following interventions. An intention-to-treat approach was utilized; differences and trends in group HPD use and hearing climate were analyzed using a mixed-effects model to account for repeated measures from individual participants. The HearWell Design Team maintainers reported the highest frequency of HPD use. Hearing climate improved in each group 6 months following intervention implementation, with the largest increase and highest value for the HearWell Design Team workers. The HearWell pilot intervention showed promising results in improving HPD use through a participatory TWH approach to hearing conservation. Furthermore, results suggest that employee participation in hearing conservation programs may be necessary for maximal effectiveness.

Women and wildlife crime: hidden offenders, protectors and victims

AbstractGender is an explanatory factor in multiple dimensions of conservation, including women's access to and participation in conservation programmes, with gender bias in wildlife research persisting globally. There is reason to believe the current global wildlife crime crisis is no exception, with a lack of critical examination of gendered roles in security for biodiversity conservation. Despite the emergence of high-profile all-women ranger units (e.g. Akashinga in Zimbabwe) there has been a lack of systematic integration of gender within biodiversity protection. Theoretical and methodological applications from criminology have become progressively more common in response to an increase in a wide range of environmental crimes with consequences for women and their communities. Here we consider the implications of the lack of knowledge of women's direct and indirect roles in wildlife security. We used the criminology and conservation literature to identify key gaps in research, and relevant and robust typologies and frameworks informed by criminology to structure future research on women as offenders, protectors (handlers, managers, guardians) and victims of wildlife crime. We argue that more intentional research into the direct and indirect roles of women in wildlife crime is needed to address wildlife crime, protect biodiversity and support social justice in response to wildlife crimes.

Impact of the Federal Conservation Program Participation on Conservation Practice Adoption Intensity in Louisiana, USA

Conservation practices focusing on improving the soil and water quality of working lands are implemented across the United States, supported partially through the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service cost-share or incentive payment programs. We assess whether participation in federal conservation support programs induces a change in the number of conservation practices adopted by farmers. We also identify the factors that affect the adoption intensity of different best management practices. We use survey data collected from Louisiana farmers and estimate models using the matching method and Poisson quasi-likelihood model. We find that participation in the cost-share or incentive program leads to an increase in the number of conservation practices on the farms. Similarly, the use of precision technology application and farm being integrated are likely to have a higher number of on-farm conservation practices. Results have implications for federal working lands conservation support programs in the United States.

Adoption of Water-Conserving Irrigation Practices among Row-Crop Growers in Mississippi, USA

This article identifies irrigated row-crop farmer factors associated with the adoption of water-conserving practices. The analysis is performed on data from a survey of irrigators in Mississippi. Regression results show that the amount of irrigated area, years of education, perception of a groundwater problem, and participation in conservation programs are positively associated with practice adoption; while number of years farming, growing rice, and pumping cost are negatively associated with adoption. However, not all factors are statistically significant for all practices. Survey results indicate that only a third of growers are aware of groundwater problems at the farm or state level; and this lack of awareness is related to whether farmers noticed a change in the depth to water distance in their irrigation wells. This evidence is consistent with a report to Congress from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that recommends policies promoting the use of: (1) more efficient irrigation technology and practices and (2) precision agriculture technologies, such as soil moisture sensors and irrigation automation.

Program Awareness, Social Capital, and Perceptions of Trees Influence Participation in Private Land Conservation Programs in Queensland, Australia.

Voluntary private land conservation (PLC) is becoming an increasingly important complement to state protected areas around the world. PLC programs can serve as valuable strategies to increase biodiversity on agricultural lands, but their effectiveness depends on high participation rates. Amidst growing concerns regarding scalability and effectiveness of conservation strategies like national parks, researchers and practitioners are looking for new strategies to increase adoption of PLC. This study investigates the demographic, social, and psychological factors associated with participation in three classes of voluntary PLC programs-grant payments, land management agreements, and covenants-and how this relates to landholders' attitudes toward tree clearing. We compare participation rates between these programs in Queensland and identify the most frequently cited reasons why land managers have or have not participated. Land managers who are more involved in agricultural organizations and whose tree clearing decisions are more influenced by the aesthetic value of trees are more likely to have participated in one or more of these programs. Participation was highly biased toward once-off grant payments, and participation in covenants was lowest of all programs. Although 58% of land managers have never participated, nearly half expressed interest in one or more programs. A lack of program knowledge and perceived losses of autonomy were the most frequently cited barriers to participation. We conclude with recommendations for increasing participation rates and raise important questions that need to be answered in order to promote a PLC culture that effectively curbs ongoing habitat degradation.

Farmer Mental Models of Biological Pest Control: Associations With Adoption of Conservation Practices in Blueberry and Cherry Orchards

Conservation practices in agriculture—such as biological pest control, provision of pollinator habitat and cover cropping—may provide ecosystem services that are beneficial to both farmers and wildlife. Despite these benefits, however, their use is not yet widespread and the factors that may limit adoption is not well understood. In this study we tested potential associations between farmers’ beliefs about ecosystem services and their management practices using data collected from questionnaires and cognitive maps from 31 Michigan blueberry and cherry farmers describing their farming systems. We found that farmers who included key biological pest control concepts in their mental model representations reported the use of more conservation practices, and/or participation in conservation programs, than those who did not. In addition, the timing of management practices was a more central factor in the mental models of farmers who included both natural predators and beneficial insects than those omitting these factors. Finally, the farmers who included those two factors showed higher degrees of systems thinking based on mental model metric analysis. We suggest that outreach emphasizing the relationships between ecosystem services and the factors farmers view as most important may positively influence communication and potential of adoption of conservation practices and preventative pest management strategies.