Land use determines interest in conservation easements among private landowners

Protection of private lands through conservation easements has garnered recent attention from scientists and conservation practitioners. Questions remain, however, about the specific characteristics and activities driving landowners’ interest in conservation easements and their willingness to consider granting them. Resolving these questions could improve prospects for private land conservation by helping land conservation organizations identify and better understand potential easement grantors. We conducted a survey of 513 private landowners in a peri-urban fringe area in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, USA. Logistic regression analysis returned seven significant predictors of landowner willingness to consider granting conservation easements. Participation in environmental organizations, recreational land-use activities, wild food gathering, and land entitlement were the strongest factors promoting interest in conservation easements. Long-term residency, male gender, and hunting or fishing, on the other hand, significantly decreased the likelihood of considering conservation easements. The findings suggest that landowners most interested in to granting conservation easements are active land users. Notably, among all the land-use activities reported, the most frequent and the most important in predicting interest in conservation easements are those undertaken for recreational and subsistence, rather than economic, purposes. This suggests that while easements might be appropriate for working lands, their role in reconciling land use with conservation requires a flexible definition of work.     

Trends in private land conservation: Increasing complexity,shifting conservation purposes and allowable private land uses

The terrain of private-land conservation dealmaking is shifting. As the area of private land protected for conservation increases, it is time to understand trends in private-land conservation agreements. We examined 269 conservation easements and conducted 73 interviews with land conservation organizations to investigate changes in private-land conservation in the United States. We hypothesized that since 2000, conservation easements have become more complex but less restrictive. Our analysis reveals shifts in what it means for private land to be “conserved.” We found that conservation easements have indeed become more complex, with more purposes and terms after 2000 compared to conservation easements recorded before 2000. However, changes in restrictiveness of conservation easements varied by land use. Mining and waste dumping were less likely to be allowed after 2000, but new residences and structures were twice as likely to be allowed. We found a shift toward allowing some bounded timber harvest and grazing and a decline in terms that entirely allow or prohibit these working land uses. Interviews revealed staff perceptions of reasons for these changes. Our analysis suggests that “used” landscapes are increasingly important for conservation but that conserving these properties stretches the limits of simple, perpetual policy tools and requires increasingly complex and contingent agreements.     

Encumbering harvest rights to protect marine environments: a model of marine conservation easements*

We adapt the concept of a conservation easement to a marine environment and explore its use to achieve conservation goals. Although marine environments generally are not owned, those who use them for commercial fishing often are regulated. These regulations grant harvesters rights to use marine environments in specified ways, and the possibility of encumbering these rights to achieve conservation goals creates a potential role for marine easements. We examine this potential under alternative fishery management regimes and find, generally, that marine easements tend to be most effective when harvest rights are delineated most fully. Our analysis suggests ways that marine easements can have flexibility and transactions cost advantages over other approaches to achieve marine conservation goals. We also propose ways in which the design of laws allowing marine easements should follow, or depart from, the design of laws authorising conservation easements on land.     

Slippage Effects of the Conservation Reserve Program

Each year, billions of dollars of public funds are expended to purchase conservation easements on farmland. One unintended impact of these programs is that they may bring non-cropland into crop production. Such a slippage effect can be caused by increased output prices and by substitution effects. This article shows that for each one hundred acres of cropland retired under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in the central United States, twenty acres of non-cropland were converted to cropland, offsetting 9 and 14% of CRP water and wind erosion reduction benefits, respectively. Implications of these results for the design of conservation programs are discussed.     

Habitat and Open Space at Risk of Land-Use Conversion: Targeting Strategies for Land Conservation

Funds available to purchase land and easements for conservation purposes are limited. This article provides a targeting strategy for protecting multiple environmental benefits that includes heterogeneity in land costs and probability of land-use conversion, by incorporating spatially explicit land-use change and hedonic price models. This strategy is compared to two alternative strategies that omit either land cost or conversion threat. Based on dynamic programming and Monte Carlo simulations with alternating periods of conservation and development, we demonstrate that the positive correlation between land costs and probability of land-use conversion affects targeting efficiency using parcel data from Sonoma County, California.     

Evaluating the Acceptance of Wetland Easement Conservation Offers

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wetland easement offers to North Dakota landowners from 1989 to 1998 had a 56% acceptance rate. Logit regression indicates that payment values, farm program certainty, participation history, and the quantity of deep wetlands all positively influenced acceptance. Payments were not sensitive to the use of published county land value data in lieu of appraisals. To increase acceptances, more transparency regarding easement offers and the updating of chart values accounting for the impact of easements on land values are suggested. These case study lessons have implications for other conservation easement programs that rely on private landowner participation.     

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.     

DO INCREASED COMMODITY PRICES LEAD TO MORE OR LESS SOIL DEGRADATION?

In this paper, a dynamic economic model is used to analyze the conflicting impacts of crop increasing/land degrading inputs with those of soil conserving/crop reducing inputs in problems of soil degradation in agriculture. Soil is a renewable resource that is generated naturally at a slow, essentially autonomous rate. Cultivation enhances crop production and degrades the soil, while conservation is unproductive for the crop but improves the soil resource. If the effects of cultivation dominate the effects of conservation in the soil dynamics, an increase in the price of the crop accelerates the rate of soil degradation In the short-run and decreases the long-run stock of the soil resource. On the other hand, if the effects of conservation dominate the effects of cultivation, an increase in the price of the crop decelerates the rate of soil degradation in the short run and increases the long-run stock of the soil resource. It is shown that subsidies on conservation activities or taxes on cultivation intensity may well decrease the long-run soil stock, although strong conditions must be satisfied for either of these results to hold. It also is shown that a reduction in the real discount rate or a direct per unit tax on soil losses is certain to increase the long-run soil stock and reduce the short-run rate of soil degradation.     

国内保护地役权研究评述：内涵阐释、作用机理与实践初探

研究目的：从内涵阐释、作用机理与实践探索等方面系统梳理当前国内有关保护地役权的研究成果，探讨未来研究方向与趋势。研究方法：文献研究法，归纳分析法，案例分析法。研究结果：保护地役权在法权性质上兼有公私属性，其通过调节私法利益与外部性内部化实现公益与私益的有效平衡。当前国内有关保护地役权的研究以理论研究为主，且就其入法路径尚有争论，相应的实践应用则处于探索阶段，未形成规范的实证研究体系。研究结论：在建立以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系的现实背景下，引入保护地役权制度可推动实现人地关系平衡，未来在实践推广的基础上，需进一步开展保护地役权的参与互动研究与效果评估，进而探讨保护地役权的制度构建，研究法律调整的路径及其与相关制度的有效衔接。     

Strategic targeting of agricultural conservation easements as a growth management tool

Public and private programs have preserved an estimated 730,000 ha of agricultural land in the United States by acquiring agricultural conservation easements (ACEs) that retire a property's development rights. ACEs could be a potent tool for smart growth if strategically targeted. This paper attempts to quantify measures of strategic targeting of ACEs as guidance for planners. Evaluating the placement of 157 ACEs in the San Francisco Bay Area of California produced mixed results. Preservation and development of agricultural land were both consistent with general plans. In contrast, we found little evidence of ACEs being used on a regional scale either to reinforce urban growth boundaries or to coalesce with other open space to form large contiguous blocks of protected areas. We used the TOPSIS method (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) to identify the most strategic agricultural lands, which are quite different from where easements have been established through 2002. We encourage planners to consider strategic targeting of ACEs as a politically acceptable mechanism to complement traditional planning tools to minimize low density sprawl.     

Irreversible Investment Under Uncertainty: Conservation Easements and the Option to Develop Agricultural Land

A landowner's decision to convert farmland to urban use is presented as an irreversible investment under uncertainty. This approach improves on conventional approaches to the valuation of conservation easements by incorporating option values. This approach also refines the calculation of compensation potentially due to landowners when use of their land is restricted by government policies to protect the environment.     

Abstracts of Award-Winning Theses

This thesis determines the tradeoff between producer welfare and the provision of environmental benefits, through reduced soil erosion and fertilizer applications, on agricultural working land. A land-use allocation model of two Iowa counties is formulated as a mathematical programming problem, building upon the Takayama and Judge framework. Slope is used to reflect terrain heterogeneity, such that the spatial allocation of land-use practices impacts economic and environmental outcomes via a yield damage function and differentiated rates of soil erosion. The model differs from prior empirical models in that it includes both crop and livestock production, which gives the model the flexibility to choose whether the two activities are optimally nonseparable.
Price policy analysis indicates that the land use allocation is relatively insensitive to changes in commodity prices, i.e., altering commodity-based support payments is insufficient to attain environmental improvements. Several "green" policy instruments are simulated to estimate the cost to producers of reducing environmental damages. Limiting soil erosion with either a regulatory standard or a per unit tax reduces the average return to land by 10%. Shifting current income support payments into a system of payments for conservation land management practices, similar in essence to the Conservation Security Program, cannot attain the same soil erosion reduction with less cost to producers. Overall, the inelastic response of land use practices to commodity prices indicates that targeting the use of productive inputs, as opposed to commodity outputs, may be a more efficient means of attaining environmental improvements.     

我国农业野生植物资源原生境保护区建设现状、问题及未来的思考

我国农业野生植物原生境面临着环境污染、人类农业生产、经济社会发展以及各类违法活动的侵蚀和破坏,建立原生境保护区是保护农业野生植物资源的重要途径之一。基于对当前威胁我国农业野生植物原生境面临的四大因素(自然灾害、农业活动、经济发展、违法活动)的系统梳理的基础上,探讨了现有农业野生植物原生境保护区建设的法规政策体系以及保护区建设现状和存在的主要问题,在此基础上提出了加强保护区建设的几点建议。分析结果表明,当前我国农业野生植物保护区建设存在的主要问题包括:保护区土地权属界定、保护区建设内容限定过窄、忽视保护区管理机构能力建设、对保护区周边农民权益保护不够。为了提高保护区建设工作,文章建议相关部门应该重视以下几个问题:统筹协调行业部门之间的权属差异,重视农业野生植物异位保存工作,修订完善保护区建设技术规范,兼顾保护区民众利益。     

PRODUCER COOPERATIVES,INPUT PRICING AND LAND ALLOCATION

This paper considers input pricing rules for a producer cooperative which supplies its members with two inputs: a publicly provided private input (water), and a local public input (road services). An Israeli Moshav which allocates land equally among producers is a good example. The cooperative uses a two-part pricing rule: a product-dependent uniform fee (head tax) and a user charge per unit of the private input. Discrimination of head tax among the producer groups is shown to dominate that of user charge in the short run. However, land reallocation among producers can result in a Pareto-superior pricing rule and the Henry George theorem emerges in the long run. Thus, allowing land leasing while maintaining equal rights to land increases producer welfare.     

Conservation Payments under Risk: A Stochastic Dominance Approach

Conservation payments can be used to preserve forest and agroforest systems. To explain landowners' land-use decisions and determine appropriate conservation payments, it is necessary to focus on revenue risk. Marginal conditional stochastic dominance rules are used to derive conditions for determining the conservation payments required to guarantee that the environmentally preferred land use dominates. An empirical application to shaded coffee protection in the biologically important Chocó region of West Ecuador shows that conservation payments required for preserving shaded coffee areas are much higher than those calculated under risk-neutral assumptions. Further, the extant distribution of land has strong impacts on the required payments.     

Measuring Interactions among Urbanization, Land Use Regulations, and Public Finance

This article presents a polychotomous choice-selectivity model to estimate the interactions among urbanization, land use regulations, and public finance in five western states (California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington). Land use regulations in these five states reduced the total developed area by an estimated 12.2% from 1982 to 1992, but increased housing prices between 1.3% and 4.7%, depending on the intensity of land use regulations in a county. Land use regulations also reduced public expenditure and property tax in the long run by 5.6% and 8.4%, respectively, but increased public expenditure and property tax in the short run by 9.8% and 12.6%.     

土地税费政策参与宏观调控的实践研究

通过分析耕地占用税、城镇土地使用税、土地增值税、新增建设用地有偿使用费（简称新增费）、土地闲置费等土地税费政策参与宏观调控实践效果,反应出我国土地税费政策参与宏观调控过程中存在税制结构不尽合理、土地取得环节税负偏低、保有环节征税范围过窄、流转环节税费政策实施难度大等问题。对策建议：优化土地税制设计,加强调控作用;在土地取得环节实行差别化税额标准;提高土地保有环节的税负;在土地流转环节加强税费征管。     

Predicting success incorporating conservation subdivisions into land use planning

Conservation subdivisions have emerged as a development option for communities wishing to conserve important ecological features and maintain rural character without decreasing housing density. Yet, these alternatives to conventional subdivisions rarely are used. We used logistic regression models to identify variables that predict county level success at adopting an ordinance and having a conservation subdivision built. Important predictors for adopting ordinances were median income, percent urban population, and a negative interaction between the two variables; important predictors for successfully completing a conservation subdivision were the adoption of an ordinance allowing conservation subdivisions and percent of residents with at least a four year college degree. Urban counties and the rural counties with higher median income were most successful adopting ordinances. Urban counties with higher education levels and an ordinance in place were most likely to have a conservation subdivision built within them. In poor rural counties, implementation may be more difficult because of limited resources to develop ordinances; these counties could collaborate with land trusts, other planning departments, or a regional council of governments to help lessen the financial burden associated with rewriting ordinances and implementing new land use practices.     

Resource constraints and partial adoption of conservation agriculture by hand-hoe farmers in Mozambique

Conservation agriculture is a set of practices widely promoted to increase agricultural productivity while conserving soil through reduced tillage, mulching and crop rotation. Adoption levels are low across southern Africa and farmers often use only some components on small portions of their land. This study uses in-depth interviews and partial budget analysis to explore adoption of conservation agriculture in Mozambique's Angonia highlands. Farmers described many benefits but there was little sign of adoption beyond plots where non-governmental organizations promoting conservation agriculture had provided inputs. Most farmers were adamant that conservation agriculture could perform better than conventional agriculture only if they applied fertilizer or compost. With current costs and prices, conservation agriculture is unprofitable except on small plots for farmers with low opportunity cost of household labour. These findings suggest that conservation agriculture can improve maize yields but capital and labour constraints limit adoption to small plots in the absence of free or subsidized inputs. Given the current ranges of prices for grain and inputs these manual forms of conservation agriculture will not be adopted on a large scale in Angonia. Nevertheless, small conservation agriculture plots can provide farmers with high yields where constraints are lowest.