The purpose of this thesis was to investigate Saskatchewan farmers’ perception of lease hunting in Southern and Central Saskatchewan. Wildlife habitat on privately owned farmland has been shown to provide significant public benefits to society at large. One method that has been shown to provide a greater private benefit to the providers of wildlife habitat is lease hunting which creates incentives to farmers to provide some of the direct use value of wildlife habitat. Since lease hunting with the current legal structure is not an option in the province of Saskatchewan, this study investigated farmers’ attitude to a hypothetical lease hunting option. A total of 84 in person surveys were administered to Saskatchewan farmers and 10 telephone interviews to outfitters operating in the province. The survey results indicated that Saskatchewan farmers are evenly split between supporting and failing to support the introduction of lease hunting. Econometric analysis using a probit model showed that farmers who are renting additional land to agricultural production, who allowed hunting on their land in the past are more likely to support introducing lease hunting. Farmers who have been asked permission to hunt on their land by recreational hunters were less likely to support lease hunting, confirming the lease hunting literature that states that the most important characteristics of lease hunting is the control over who accesses their land. Since farmers who have already been asked for permission to access their land already possess the control over their land they were less likely to support the introduction of lease hunting. Demographic variables such as age and education do not have an effect on attitude to lease hunting. The price of a day hunting lease was estimated among those farmers who were in support of introducing lease hunting. It seems farmers are willing to accept $90 per day for a day of recreational hunting access to their lands. A tobit model showed that farmers who rent more land for agricultural production would charge more for a day of recreational hunting access. Also those farmers who have high perceived quantity of wildlife on their land would charge more up to a certain point where wildlife nuisance quality becomes more prominent.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USASK/oai:ecommons.usask.ca:10388/ETD-2013-04-1016 |
| Date | 2013 April 1900 |
| Contributors | Belcher, Kenneth |
| Source Sets | University of Saskatchewan Library |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, thesis |
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