Factors associated with landowner involvement in forest conservation programs in the U.S.: Implications for policy design and outreach

One-third of the forestland in the U.S. is owned by 10.4 million family forest owners. Their collective decisions have a great impact on the sustainability of forest landscape across the country. Public policies and programs for encouraging landowners to properly manage their land include cost-share, forest certification, and conservation easements. However, to date, less than 6% of the family forest owners have participated in a cost-share program, less than 1% have certified their land, and less than 2% have an easement. By analyzing data from USDA Forest Service's National Woodland Owner Survey, we examined the characteristics of family forest owners who had participated in these programs and identified strategies to capitalize on these landowner characteristics to improve current programs and attract a wider range of participants. We found that family forest owners with larger land holdings were more likely to participate in all three types of programs. Obtaining forest management information or advice was important for program participation; however, the effects differed depending on the types of programs and the sources of information. Income was not significant in predicting participation in cost-share programs, implying family forest owners from lower-income strata were not more likely to use cost-share program. The results also suggest the importance of targeting the right audience when promoting forest certification programs, namely those who are participants of cost-share programs, own forestland for reasons other than farming or ranching, and plan to harvest sawlogs or pulpwood in the future. Age was not significant in any of the empirical models. This result is particularly intriguing in the context of conservation easement, considering recent discussions about the high cost of dying unprepared and the potential for promoting conservation easement as part of estate planning among older family forest owners. Finally, few variables were significant in the model predicting landowner decision about donating or selling an easement, suggesting the easement decision is very different from cost-share and forest certification decisions and further efforts are needed to understand the dynamics of this increasingly popular conservation policy tool. In summary, this study provides a better understanding of the relationship between program participation and the demographics, attitudes and behaviors of family forest owners. This understanding contributes to the development of outreach strategies for improving landowner interest in forest conservation programs.     

Scale of harvesting by non-industrial private forest landowners

We examine the intensity of harvesting decision by non-industrial landowners at the lowest price offer they deem acceptable, using a multiple bounded discrete choice stated preference approach that draws upon and connects two subfields of forestry, one identifying characteristics of landowners important to past harvesting or reforestation decisions, and another proposing how landowners evaluate price offers for forest harvesting decisions. Variables important to harvest intensity choices when the landowners find an acceptable price have only been considered for those landowners who actually have participated in harvesting markets, whereas here we examine the behavior of these individuals as well as those who are on the margin (i.e., have not harvested at prevailing current or past market prices). We show that harvest intensity depends critically on the extent of urbanization, indicated by the presence of structures on a parcel as well as forested tract size, along with landowner characteristics such as absenteeism and length of ownership. The results are useful for understanding the timber management behavior for a majority of landowners who may not harvest at prevailing prices, but may participate should prices reach a level acceptable to them, where this level is determined by individual preferences for standing timber resources.     

Decisions nonindustrial forest landowners make: an empirical examination

Our purpose is to estimate a model of non-industrial forest landowner behavior that considers certain types of behavior that have escaped discussion and rigorous investigation in the literature, yet which are critical to future policy making. Our focus on the many different but related decisions landowners make broadens the typical understanding of landowner behavior to show how bequest motives, debt and participation in non-timber activities, and harvesting decisions are interrelated and dependent on landowner preferences, market, and land characteristics.     

Relationships between absenteeism,conservation group membership,and land management among family forest owners

Absentee landowners, or those who do not live on their forestland, own approximately 117 million acres of private forestland in the U.S. Thus, their land management decisions and activities influence the flow of forest-based goods and services. We explore the question of whether absentee family forest owners are less active land managers than resident landowners and whether membership in conservation organizations is associated with higher levels of land management activity by absentee owners. To examine these questions, we administered a mail survey to randomly-selected family forest landowners in Indiana. While we found some support for the contention that absentee owners are less active forestland managers than resident owners, we also found they are not necessarily inactive landowners. We found absentee owners were less likely to have: inspected their forestland for invasive plants, pulled or cut invasive plants, used herbicides to kill invasive plants, reduced fire hazard, or grazed livestock than resident owners. Absentee owners were more likely to be enrolled in the Indiana Classified Forest and Wildlands Program, a preferential forest property tax program. Absentee owners who are members of a conservation organization were more likely than absentee non-member owners to have undertaken a variety of land management activities, including: undertaking wildlife habitat improvement projects, inspecting their forestland for invasive plants, pulling or cutting invasive plants, enrolling in the Indiana Classified Forest and Wildlands program, and obtaining a management plan.     

Which smallholders are willing to adopt Acacia mangium under long-term contracts? Evidence from a choice experiment study in Indonesia

Smallholder ownership of forests has grown rapidly over the last 25 years, leading to global forest transition; however, incentives are required to keep smallholders growing trees under long-term afforestation contracts. This article reports on smallholders’ willingness to join afforestation programs, growing Acacia mangium under contract on their private farmland. In a Choice Experiment, we examine the effects of policy attributes of afforestation contracts, including contract duration, labour participation, timber insurance, training opportunities, road improvement, and expected income. We report the marginal value of changes in monetary terms. A scale-extended latent class model was used to analyse preference heterogeneity in data of 323 smallholders from three different regions in Indonesia (West Kalimantan, Yogyakarta, and South Sumatera). These regions are at different forest transition stages. Our results indicate that there are four latent preference classes, which value attributes of the contract differently. Individual characteristics (risk orientation, tree growing experiences, and occupation), and regional differences explain the probability of preference class membership. Our findings have important implications for enhancing afforestation strategies that improve social welfare of smallholders in various forest transition stages.     

Factors influencing farmers’ participation in contractual biodiversity conservation: a choice experiment with northern Australian pastoralists

Private landholders’ contributions to biodiversity conservation are critical in landscapes with insufficient formal conservation reserves, as is the case in Australia's tropical savannas. This study reports results from a discrete choice experiment conducted with pastoralists and graziers across northern Australia. The experiment was designed to explore the willingness of pastoralists and graziers to sign up to voluntary biodiversity conservation contracts. Understanding preferences for contractual attributes and preference heterogeneity were additional objectives. Such knowledge can increase effectiveness and efficiency of conservation programs by informing contract design, negotiation and administration. Random parameter logit modelling showed that of contract attributes, conservation requirement, stewardship payment, contract duration and flexibility in contract conditions significantly influenced choices. Land productivity was a significant factor as were attitudes. There was significant heterogeneity of preferences for all contract attributes. Models were run for best–worst scaling responses and the first preferences subset, with the latter model deemed superior. Latent class modelling distinguished four classes of decision‐makers and illustrated different decision heuristics. Conservation investment strategies, which offer farmers contract options that meet biodiversity requirements while accommodating heterogeneous attribute preferences, are likely to lead to increased participation rates. Complementary suasion efforts are also required which espouse the benefits that pastoralists derive from biodiversity and participation in voluntary conservation contracts.     

Willingness-to-sell conservation easements: A case study

A contingent valuation survey of forest landowners in Southern Vermont and Western Massachusetts suggests that it would cost about $700 per acre to entice about one-half of Massachusetts and 33% of Vermont respondents to permanently conserve their forestland. Policies that promote early development of management plans and cooperation with neighbors are recommended because these activities appear to increase the likelihood that landowners will convey conservation easements. Education and a strong environmental ethic also improve the chances that respondents would sell conservation easements. A prediction-based contingent valuation format designed to reduce incentives for strategic behavior suggests that our results likely represent a lower bound estimate of landowner response to a large-scale conservation easement program.     

Forest conservation programs and the landowners who prefer them: Profiling family forest owners in the New York City watershed

Voluntary forest conservation programs offer family forest owners (FFO) financial incentives in exchange for legally-binding land use restrictions and/or management obligations. Protecting family forests in the Catskill Mountains region of New York is an important policy objective, as these watersheds provide clean drinking water to New York City. Multiple methods were used to elicit preferences for forest conservation program attributes and to identify potential barriers to participation. Respondents to a mailed survey were grouped according to the program attribute that most influenced their likely participation into forest conservation programs. Respondents were identified as time-sensitive, payment value-sensitive, rights-sensitive, payment mode-sensitive, or harvest-sensitive. Comparing groups revealed significant differences in age, attitudes towards harvesting trees, income, and importance of timber production. Supplemental qualitative data was collected during three focus groups of survey respondents and analyzed for general themes. Focus group discussions revealed a lack of knowledge about conservation easement programs, reluctance to burden landowners’ children with encumbered land inheritances, concerns for resale values and tax assessment, and a simmering animosity towards New York City’s watershed management efforts. We offer strategies to address these concerns and to design programs that will foster greater participation among FFOs in the region.     

Money,Land or self-employment? Understanding preference heterogeneity in landowners’ choices for compensation under land acquisition in India

Land acquisition policies, upon which future land use patterns in India depend, are controversially tied to the question of whether to provide monetary or non-monetary compensation to affected landowners. However, turning to the preferences of landowners for answers only serves to complicate matters, as these are not homogenous on the question. This implies there is a need to identify the underlying factors giving rise to this preference heterogeneity, in order to develop more effective and efficient policy. This paper aims to address this gap using a contingent ranking experiment to study landowner disposition toward a range of compensation options, presented in a survey conducted in an ‘about-to-be-submerged’ region of a large, multi-stage irrigation project in India. Rankings were based on a selection of six compensation options, constituting different combinations of the attributes - cash, land, housing and self-employment. While the results suggest that landowners generally prefer non-monetary compensation, both the size of landholding and level of education of the landholder appear to influence the preferences for different compensation options. We find that landowners with more land or education tended to favour monetary compensation, while those with lower education or less land tended to favour housing and self-employment options. We close the text by exploring possible explanations for this specific form of heterogeneity, including access to information, to networks and capacities for income generation, and providing some reflections on the implications of these results for ensuring that rehabilitation and resettlement policies are both well targeted and effective.     

Optimal forest management with sequential disturbances

Previous work in forest management under uncertainty has been based on the assumption that landowners face a risk of only one damaging event during any forest rotation, with the main result being that landowners choose shorter rotation ages. These models are universal in an assumption that, should the disturbance arise in a given rotation, the landowner salvages what is possible through a harvest and replants to begin a new rotation. However, a real possibility exists that multiple disturbances may occur in one rotation, with the landowner retaining the damaged stand thereby waiting through the first or even a subsequent disturbance to harvest and begin a new rotation. We develop a new approach for rotations models and choices that allows more than one event and flexibility in the timing of harvest, where tree recovery and damage may make continuance of the rotation, rather than starting over, a rent maximizing strategy. We thereby generalize the highly-cited body of literature based on Paul Samuelson's and William Reed's seminal contributions. Results demonstrate that failure to consider these new features leads to suboptimal harvest decisions and highly suboptimal land rent values. Important parameters are found to be arrival rates of future disturbances and survival proportions and growth rates after each disturbance.     

论林地产权转出的集中契约稳定性及治理

采用规范分析与演绎推导的方法从契约利益主体关系和集中契约内生属性两个层面厘清林地规模化转出的集中契约内生威胁,探究集中契约的稳定治理措施。研究表明:集中契约中的利益主体关系演变会打破铁三角的均衡关系,降低契约的有效性与稳定性;利益主体在履约过程中由于价值观变化、心理契约失衡和契约内容不够灵活与完备致使集中契约长期稳定存在一定威胁。为此,从契约利益主体间权利、义务和责任以及契约治理两个层面提出增强林地规模流转集中契约的稳定性对策,以巩固和深化林权改革,促进林地规模化经营与产业化发展。     

Knowledge of three regeneration programs and application behavior among Mississippi nonindustrial private forest landowners: A two-step sample selection approach

Various public financial assistance programs are available to nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners in the United States. Many landowners have limited knowledge of these programs and have not utilized them. This study employed a two-step sample selection model to examine the determinants of NIPF landowner knowledge of three regeneration programs, and conditional on their knowledge, the determinants of the application frequency to these programs since 1996. Data were collected using a phone survey of NIPF landowners in Mississippi. The survey revealed that among these qualified landowners who had clearcut in the past 10 years, about 50% knew of one or more of the programs. Their application frequencies to individual programs ranged from 0 to 5. Landowner knowledge of the programs was positively related to land size, regeneration experience, gender, and membership in forestry associations. For landowners who knew of these programs, application frequencies were higher for those that had less acreage, had lower education or income, were fully employed, were female, or had no membership in forestry organizations.     

Absentee landowners and conservation programs: Mind the gap

In this research report, we examine determinants of absentee landowner participation in USDA set-aside and cost share programs. Previous research on these landowners suggests they have a high interest in conservation yet minimal involvement in government conservation programs on their land (e.g. [Petrzelka et al., 2009] and [Roggenbuck and Kushman, 1980]). Our aim is to better understand this gap in hopes of attracting absentee landowners as participants to USDA conservation programs.     

Policy lessons from spatiotemporal enrollment patterns of payment for ecosystem service programs in Argentina

Payment for ecosystem services schemes (PES) are lauded as a market-based solution to curtail deforestation and restore degraded ecosystems. However, PES programs often fail to conserve sites under strong long-term deforestation pressures. Underperformance, in part, is likely due to adverse selection. Spatial adverse selection occurs when landowners are more likely to enroll parcels with low deforestation pressure than parcels with high deforestation pressure. Temporal adverse selection arises when parcels are enrolled for short time periods. In both cases, financial resources are allocated without having a sizeable impact on long-term land use change. Improving program performance to overcome these shortcomings requires understanding attributes of landowners and their parcels across large scales to identify spatial and temporal enrollment patterns that drive adverse selection. In this paper, we examine these patterns in Argentina’s PES program in Chaco forest, a global deforestation hotspot. Our study area covers 252,319 km². Results from multinomial logistic regression models showed that large parcels of enrolled land and parcels owned by absentee landowners exhibit greater evidence of spatiotemporal adverse selection than smaller parcels or parcels owned by local landowners. Furthermore, parcels managed under land use plans for conservation and restoration are more likely to be associated with adverse selection than parcels managed for financial returns such as harvest of non-timber forest products, silviculture, and silvopasture. However, prior to recommending that PES programs focus on land uses with higher potential earnings, a greater understanding is needed of the degree to which these land uses meet ecological and biodiversity goals of PES programs. We suggest that increased spatial targeting of enrollment, along with enrollment of local landowners and further incentives for land uses that support conservation and restoration, could promote long-term conservation of forest lands.     

The effectiveness of state preferential property tax programs in conserving forests: Comparisons,measurements, and challenges

Forest property taxes have been identified as one of the major driving forces behind forest loss and parcelization. Among various policy alternatives for reducing the burden of forest property taxes on landowners, preferential property tax programs have been widely used across states. Existing research has mostly focused on individual property tax programs, particularly those based on current use valuation, while little has been done to document, analyze and compare programs across states. By examining survey data from state preferential property tax program administrators across the United States, this paper describes the commonalities and differences among states regarding their preferential property tax programs, provides a preliminary understanding of the relationship between state preferential property tax policy and trends in private forest conditions, and identifies issues related to the effectiveness of state preferential property tax programs and private forest land management and conservation. Our analysis revealed three fundamental disconnects: (1) Program attributes that were previously considered to be important for preferential property tax programs to be effective in retaining forest land and fostering management did not consistently correlate with program effectiveness as viewed by the administrators of these programs; (2) These program attributes did not consistently correlate with actual program effectiveness as measured at the state level by forest trend indicators used in this study (i.e., change in private forest land cover, change in average size of private forest holdings, extent to which private forest land is being actively managed); and (3) The self-assessed program effectiveness did not consistently correlate with actual program effectiveness, either. The various ways in which the effectiveness of preferential property tax programs is defined and measured contribute to explaining these disconnects. It is particularly important for researchers and policy makers to be explicit about how they define and measure effectiveness and the scale on which they conduct their analysis before assessing and comparing programs or suggesting improvement strategies.     

Has China’s new round of collective forest reforms caused an increase in the use of productive forest inputs?

Forestland tenure and financial incentives are the most important policy issue to sustainable forest resource management. The new wave of reform of collective forestland tenure (NRCFT) has been launched since 2003 and the governmental matching reform measures (MRMs) for the NRCFT have been introduced since 2009. The objective of these reforms is to enhance sustainable forest resource management in Chinese collective regions by encouraging rural households’ productive forest inputs. We use a unique dataset of 1778 sample households in 18 counties of nine provinces with six years and employ a fixed effects model with clustered standard errors. Our empirical results indicate that: 1) the NRCFT has increased households’ forestland area of different tenure types, and the effects of the MRMs on rural households’ labor input and production expenditures for forestry purposes are generally positive, especially household used forestland as collateral for a loan and afforestation or reafforestation subsidy and reform of Annual Allowance Cut (AAC) have significantly contributed to increase in the use of productive forest inputs; 2) the NRCFT and the MRMs have different impacts on the use of productive forest inputs for different tenure forests, and these reforms have caused the most significant changes in rural households’ production decision changes for household responsibility forestland; 3) both the NRCFT and the MRMs have significant effects on rural households’ rent-in and rent-out forestland; and 4) forestland fragmentations have caused additional labor and investment inputs for rural households’ forest resource management and protection. And finally, market drivers and household and village characteristics factors also affect households’ decisions for productive inputs for their managing forests.     

Landowner knowledge and willingness to supply woody biomass for wood-based bioenergy: Sample selection approach

Nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners’ willingness to harvest woody biomass for wood-based bioenergy is important if sustainable feedstock supplies are to be realized in the U.S. However, a significant number of them do not know that unused logging residues could be used to produce wood-based bioenergy. Therefore, this study analyzed landowner willingness to harvest woody biomass in Mississippi contingent upon their knowledge of wood-based bioenergy. The requisite data were analyzed in accordance with the Heckman approach. Results indicated that elderly, male, and resident landowners, having larger tracts of pine plantations were more likely to be aware of wood-based bioenergy. The results further revealed the need for bioenergy related extension education focusing on female landowners and those having small tracts of forest land.     

A country scale analysis revealed effective forest policy affecting forest cover changes in Cambodia

Considerable proportions of the remaining global forest areas are currently harboured in tropical countries. Reducing deforestation in this region is important to help mitigate climate change. Effective forest conservation approach is needed to reduce deforestation and degradation in these countries. Here, we investigated the forest conservation effect of community forests and protected areas using country scale data in Cambodia. In addition to these two forest conservation approaches, we also evaluated the effectiveness of protected forests, which are similar to protected areas but managed by different authorities. We compared deforestation between 2006 and 2016 in areas under the three forest conservation approaches and a non-conserved area by applying the inverse probability of treatment weighting with the propensity score minimizing confounding effects. The results showed that community forest, protected areas, and protected forest significantly decreased deforestation compared with non-conserved forests. Out of the three forest conservation approaches, protected forest was the most effective and community forest was the least effective. We conclude that all of the policies we evaluated are effective for forest conservation but the effectiveness varies depending on the approach. Our findings also suggest that the authority managing the given approach plays an important part in its effectiveness.     

Analysis of individual private forestry in northern Spain according to economic factors related to management

In addition to being motivated by profit, the management decisions taken by non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners involve other considerations beyond timber, such as non-timber goods and services, as well as factors that affect the level of timber output from the land. Ensuring and improving forest profitability to make NIPF management viable is one of the main challenges faced by this type of landowner. This study empirically explores and assesses management by NIPF owners, through analysing attributes of forest economics (investment in holdings, expenditure on planting and silviculture, public subsidies, along with timber and non-timber incomes). With the aim of predicting outcomes, a multiple regression model was also constructed to investigate and quantify the relationship between socioeconomic and holding factors, and the planting activities carried out by NIPF owners. For this, 103 resident forest landowners in a forest region in northern Spain were interviewed in person, during March 2004, about their commitment to and involvement in land management during the period 1999–2003. The results mainly revealed that attractive forest returns and favourable market conditions for timber production are significant factors for investment in and development of forestry, with personal and family conditions also being important factors in explaining the type of land management carried out. In particular, the multiple linear regression model for forest planting activity correctly explained 84.5% of the variability observed in the study population, indicating that both the investments in and the incomes from forestry play an important role in the activity, as does the size of the holding. The findings may be of interest in promoting public measures related to timber markets and economic incentives for forest management, which will allow landowners to develop economically viable practices, as well as enabling fulfilment of social and environmental demands for sustainable forestry and rural development.     

The effect of on-site forest experience on stated preferences for low-impact timber harvesting programs

An important issue in the design of stated-preference surveys is whether the information provided to respondents within a survey instrument is adequate to yield valid value estimates. Providing respondents with on-site experience about forest ecosystem management alternatives may influence their expectation of the effects from new policies and programs. In the research reported here, we investigate whether preference parameters for attributes of low-impact timber harvesting programs differ between respondents to a mail survey versus respondents provided with an on-site forest experience (walk through a research forest). The empirical analysis in our application shows that stated preferences for timber harvesting attributes are not statistically different between the mail and on-site applications of the survey, and this result is robust to pretest (before experience) and post-test (post experience) applications.