Recent land ownership trends in Texas have created concerns for natural resource agencies throughout the state (Wilkins et al. 2000, 2003; Steinbach 2001, American Farmland Trust 2003). An increase in the number of small properties has been associated with drastic changes in management emphasis in many areas and has led to concerns regarding landscape and ecosystem-level processes. Additionally, these apparent changes in management emphasis have subsequently led to concerns regarding the effectiveness of traditional natural resource conservation programs for all types of landowners. In this study, I sought to quantify differences in landowner characteristics, attitudes, and motivations in the Leon River Watershed using an informant directed interview process (Holstein and Gubrium 1995). I contacted and interviewed 60 landowners in the 4 central Texas counties contained within the Leon River Watershed. I found that landowners in my study could be classified into 1 of 3 categories that represented distinct goals, attitudes and motivations regarding land ownership andagriculture and wildlife management. Born to the Land, Ag. Business, and Re-born to the Land owners each display strong ideals regarding the proper context of land management, extremely distinctive ethical attitudes regarding their role as stewards of their land, and identifiable differences in their willingness to participate in various natural resource conservation programs. Natural resource agencies and organizations will now have the ability to profile landowners as to their likelihood of participation in various types of programs and conservation initiatives. The findings of this study could lead to dramatic changes in the way landowners are viewed and dealt with by many natural resource professionals.

Apparent increases in sales and price of rural land, recent changes in land taxing procedure and proposed land-use legislation have brought forth a number of land questions among legislators, public officials and the general citizenry of Utah. This study is directed at questions pertaining to land purchases and land buyers in rural Utah counties. A random sample was taken of the land transfer cards on file at the Utah State Tax Commission. Land buyers whose names appeared on the transfer cards and the returned questionnaires were used in the analysis and are the sole basis of the conclusions of the study. General conclusions from the study were: Land-use at the time of the transaction was most frequently agricultural or vacant or idle for acreages and was most frequently nonagricultural for lots. Following the transaction there was a tendency on the part of buyers to change agricultural and vacant or idle land to a different land use. Buyer characteristics such as annual income, buyer age and residence varied among the regions of the state and were important factors in land transfers. About 50 percent of the total dollars spent for land parcels included in the sample went for residential land. Land located near city limits, improved or unimproved, averaged the highest price per acre or lot. The study's conclusions apply only to recorded land transfers on file at the Utah State Tax Commission for the years 1969 through 1971.

The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is the nation's principal tool for accomplishing river conservation. Congress intended for the Act to apply to rivers regardless of ownership of adjacent lands, but efforts to implement the Act on rivers bordered by private property have met with limited success. This paper presents the underlying issues related to private land applications, explores the range of ideas and opinions existing among river conservation experts, agency river planners and others regarding how to work with these issues, identifies areas of general concurrence and least agreement, and makes recommendations for future private land applications of the Act.

As pressures of a growing population take their toll on our environment, efforts must be made to facilitate sustainable behaviours at the neighbourhood scale. Science is demonstrating that the abundance and diversity of native bees is declining in many locales around the world. One of the major drivers of this decline is the loss and fragmentation of habitat, caused in part by suburban expansion. This emerging landscape is dominated by a garden typology not beneficial to bee populations. Using the principles and theories of Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) and a survey of Guelph gardeners and homeowners, effective program strategies are outlined for implementation by Pollination Guelph, and target the behaviours and barriers associated with activities that negatively impact native bees. A CBSM based program will encourage bee-friendly gardening, promote the aggregate changes needed to alter the individuals gardening behaviours, and potentially increase native bee populations in the suburban neighbourhoods of Guelph.

Protected areas are an important tool for biodiversity conservation. Statutory protected areas are, however, perceived to currently be insufficient in extent and functioning for achieving conservation goals. Conservation action on privately owned land plays an increasingly vital role in expanding the global conservation estate. Private Land Conservation Areas (PLCAs) exist with internal properties and external contexts and do not occur isolated in space and time. They can thus best be described as linked social-ecological systems. Little comprehensive work has yet been done concerning the structure and functioning of PLCAs. However, an understanding of their emergence, long-term persistence and contribution to conservation is highly relevant. How can PLCAs maintain their identity against disturbances in order to be resilient into the future? Spatial patterns and relationships determine the answer to this question. Geographical location influences the private conservation estate through different drivers, namely biophysical conditions, network connections and membership, as well as socio-economic conditions. I thus used a comparative, spatially explicit and holistic approach to better understand spatial resilience of PLCAs in the Western Cape Province of South Africa as case study region. The approach was based on assessing representative measures for four elements of system identity (being components, relationships, sources of continuity, and sources of innovation). I expected that geographical location and spatial variation in social-ecological factors strongly influence PLCA types, socio-economic interaction networks among protected areas and other stakeholders, contribution to conservation by PLCAs and their ecotourism performance. Information and data for this research were obtained from personal interviews conducted with owners and managers of 70 PLCAs across the province. Additional data were derived via conservation authorities and online tools. My findings show that the identity and resilience of PLCAs are strongly dominated by the influence of spatial location and heterogeneity in factors such as ecological features or socioeconomic context. I was able to verify existing PLCA types, namely game and habitat reserves, which strongly depended on the biophysical context. Visitation rates were influenced by location which determined the adopted corporate model of PLCAs. Clear neighbourhood effects emerged in socioeconomic interaction networks, which further highlighted great potential to enhance collaboration across scales. PLCAs provided a substantial contribution to conservation targets in terms of importance (covering critical biodiversity areas) and urgency (protecting ecosystems of threatened status). My findings will be valuable to highlight opportunities for more effective conservation in the study region, and to advance insights into the spatial resilience of social-ecological systems.

Cost-share programs to improve sustainable land and water use are offered from federal, state, and non-governmental entities to non-industrial private (NIP) landowners. Despite the broad attention given to the ecological benefits of these programs, far less attention has been focused on their social impacts and benefits. To achieve the desired environmental objectives laid out within these programs, natural resource agencies must work to maintain high levels of satisfaction and participation among private landowners. The purpose of the study was to examine the attitudes and motivations of participants enrolled in one of three cost-share programs in Mississippi and compare those with the views of natural resource professionals throughout the state regarding landowner attitudes and motivations. Overall, landowners had positive views of their program experiences and the views of natural resource professionals coincided largely with those of landowners.

Objectives of this research were (1) to describe fee hunting as it is currently practiced in Utah and (2) to assess the adequacy of fee hunting efforts in addressing the problems of wildlife habitat and hunter access on private land. To collect information, Utah landowners who charged for deer (Odocoileus hemionus) or elk (Cervus elaphus) hunting in 1986 were surveyed by telephone and mail. Compared to the average Utah livestock rancher, those involved in fee hunting have larger livestock operations and have owned their property longer. They are Utah natives. Fee hunting is concentrated in northern Utah where foothill and mountain rangelands are privately owned. There is great diversity in the way fee hunting is organized and managed. Hunting opportunities sold by lease usually include few services and require hunters to post and patrol the property. Hunts sold by permit may include more services and be personally managed by the rancher. In general, fee hunting in Utah is differentiated from public land hunting by the availability of more acres per hunter rather than by special services or trophy animals. Fee hunting serves mostly resident hunters. Average net annual cash income is $6587, or $0.66 per acre. The most common expenses incurred are for road and facility (fence, campsite) maintenance and vehicle costs. Highest expenses are those associated with providing services. Landowners initiated fee hunting in order to gain control over trespassing and cover the costs of having hunters on their property. Most do not buy liability insurance. Fee hunting is expanding the number and types of hunting opportunities and is meeting the needs of landowners to minimize costs of trespassing and hunters. However, fee hunting is not stimulating investments in wildlife habitat improvement. Because of intermingling landownerships and the migratory nature of deer and elk in Utah, investments in wildlife habitat or management have an uncertain return. It is unlikely that fee hunting can provide adequate incentives for improving wildlife habitat without substantial policy changes to enhance the ability of landowners to capture a return on such investments.

Rangelands have significant potential to sequester carbon and contribute to the mitigation of climate change. This research aimed at better understanding the beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions of Utah rangeland owners concerning carbon sequestration and climate change, examining their current grazing management practices in relation to soil carbon sequestration, and exploring factors influencing their likelihood of participating in future programs. Data were collected through interviews of Utah rangeland owners and range management professionals and a statewide rangeland owner survey. About two-thirds of respondents thought the climate had been changing over the last 30 years, were aware of carbon sequestration, and viewed it positively. Forty-one percent considered it an important management objective. Having positive attitudes was associated with having “biocentric” environmental value and believing climate change and its anthropogenic nature. Respondents valued the potential ecological benefits of carbon sequestration, indicated a preference for educational programs over financial incentives, and preferred working with private agricultural organizations over non-profit or government entities on carbon management. Thirty-seven percent of respondents reported likely to participate in a carbon sequestration program. Higher likelihood was associated with dependence on livestock production, considering carbon sequestration an important management objective, being interested in learning more about it, and placing high importance on the economic and climate benefits of participating in relevant programs. These results suggest potential challenges for developing technically sound and socially acceptable policies and programs for promoting carbon sequestration on private rangelands. Rangeland owners’ attitudes towards carbon sequestration may play a strong role in their participation in future programs. Although education and outreach are considered important, innovative strategies are needed to communicate the concept and processes of carbon sequestration with rangeland owners without politicizing the issue. One approach is to tailor education and outreach messages to focus on the ecological benefits of carbon sequestration. Efforts are also needed to enhance the cooperation between private agricultural organizations and government agencies to promote carbon management on private rangelands. Instead of developing new programs, funneling resources to improve the carbon sequestration potential of existing conservation programs and attract wider participation among rangeland owners may be another cost effective policy strategy.

What motivates agricultural-land owners to use conservation easements? As these legal tools have become a popular strategy for private land conservation in the U.S., a growing body of literature is examining how and why landowners conserve their properties through conservation easements. This research project expands upon environmental, geographical and rural land development literature through a qualitative fieldwork study of 34 private, conservation landowners associated with the Franklin Land Trust, a nonprofit conservation organization in western Massachusetts. The study identifies a broad range of environmental, social, spiritual and financial motivations for agricultural-land owners to conserve their properties, and indicates that for the vast majority of study participants certain motivations were more important than others depending on landowners’ level of reliance on their land to sustain their livelihoods. Using this classification criterion, landowner profiles identified in this study include full-time farmers, supplemental-income farmers, and farmland retreat owners. For most of the landowners within the biggest group—the full-time farmers—the most important motivation to conserve was financial; particularly, to obtain a cash payment to improve the economic viability of their farming operation. Nonetheless, the financial motivation was not the only important one for the 34 landowners, nor was it always the most important. This study makes two additional contributions to land conservation research. First, it examines agricultural-land conservation through phenomenological approaches to the study of place. In this regard, findings suggest landowners and land trust staff members have different relationships with the conserved land and its surroundings and, therefore, different senses of place. Second, the study frames agricultural-land conservation through conservation easements as a potential aspect of rural sustainability with respect to the economic, social, and environmental benefits of conservation, from the point of view of both agricultural-land owners and a land trust. The findings also indicate that the landowners of this study were generally very satisfied with the outcomes of using conservation easements despite drawbacks. Overall, this study contributes to land conservation studies through an analysis of individual motivations and experiences that shape the decisions of agricultural-land owners to grant conservation easements.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第20435号 / 農博第2220号 / 新制||農||1049(附属図書館) / 学位論文||H29||N5056(農学部図書室) / 京都大学大学院農学研究科生物資源経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 栗山 浩一, 教授 福井 清一, 教授 伊藤 順一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DGAM