Evaluating Costs of Conservation

@article{citeulike:1198914, abstract = {The loss and fragmentation of native habitats caused by agricultural development and conversion of agricultural lands into urban sprawl are widely recognized as the most serious modern threats to the conservation of biodiversity. Regulatory mechanisms have been heavily relied upon but largely ineffective at preventing the loss of wildlife habitat and the decline of endangered species, particularly on private lands. Land acquisition and permanent conservation easements may be more reliable conservation tools, but they are often incompatible with the desires of private landowners and rural communities. We describe resource conservation agreements (RCAs), an incentive-based alternative that provides private landowners compensation for the agricultural and nonagricultural development potential of their land in exchange for conserving and managing wildlife habitat. We evaluated the public costs of managing 356,038 ha of existing public lands in southwest Florida critical to the survival of the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi). We also reviewed the costs of public ownership, permanent conservation easements, and RCAs for approximately 200,000 ha of priority panther habitat under public ownership in southwest Florida. Assuming a 3.65public ownership, we estimated current annualized expenditures for public ownership as U.S. 69/ha/year. In comparison, estimated costs to purchaseand manage (174-297/ha/year) or enter into permanent conservation easements (116-208/ha/year) on privately owned, priority panther habitat were muchgreater. The disparity between the costs of public ownership for existingpublic lands and those estimated for privately owned lands was due to greateragricultural and residential development potential on the privately ownedlands. The mean purchase price for the public lands reviewed was 1291/ha, whereas the estimated average value of privately owned priority panther habitat was 4744-7401/ha. The estimated cost of RCA on private lands was74-82/ha/year. The estimated cost of RCA was roughly equivalent to current expenditures for the public lands we reviewed, 200-400the estimated cost of purchasing privately owned lands and 200-300expensive than the estimated cost of permanent conservation easements to conserve privately owned priority panther habitat in southwest Florida.}, author = {Main, Martin B. and Roka, Fritz M. and Noss, Reed F. }, citeulike-article-id = {1198914}, journal = {Conservation Biology}, keywords = {conservation, econ}, number = {6}, pages = {1262--1272}, posted-at = {2007-03-30 20:30:28}, priority = {2}, title = {Evaluating Costs of Conservation}, url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/2641950}, volume = {13}, year = {1999} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1198914 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1198914 TI - Evaluating Costs of Conservation JF - Conservation Biology VL - 13 IS - 6 SP - 1262 EP - 1272 N2 - The loss and fragmentation of native habitats caused by agricultural development and conversion of agricultural lands into urban sprawl are widely recognized as the most serious modern threats to the conservation of biodiversity. Regulatory mechanisms have been heavily relied upon but largely ineffective at preventing the loss of wildlife habitat and the decline of endangered species, particularly on private lands. Land acquisition and permanent conservation easements may be more reliable conservation tools, but they are often incompatible with the desires of private landowners and rural communities. We describe resource conservation agreements (RCAs), an incentive-based alternative that provides private landowners compensation for the agricultural and nonagricultural development potential of their land in exchange for conserving and managing wildlife habitat. We evaluated the public costs of managing 356,038 ha of existing public lands in southwest Florida critical to the survival of the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi). We also reviewed the costs of public ownership, permanent conservation easements, and RCAs for approximately 200,000 ha of priority panther habitat under public ownership in southwest Florida. Assuming a 3.65public ownership, we estimated current annualized expenditures for public ownership as U.S. 69/ha/year. In comparison, estimated costs to purchaseand manage (174-297/ha/year) or enter into permanent conservation easements (116-208/ha/year) on privately owned, priority panther habitat were muchgreater. The disparity between the costs of public ownership for existingpublic lands and those estimated for privately owned lands was due to greateragricultural and residential development potential on the privately ownedlands. The mean purchase price for the public lands reviewed was 1291/ha, whereas the estimated average value of privately owned priority panther habitat was 4744-7401/ha. The estimated cost of RCA on private lands was74-82/ha/year. The estimated cost of RCA was roughly equivalent to current expenditures for the public lands we reviewed, 200-400the estimated cost of purchasing privately owned lands and 200-300expensive than the estimated cost of permanent conservation easements to conserve privately owned priority panther habitat in southwest Florida. KW - conservation KW - econ AU - Main, Martin AU - Roka, Fritz AU - Noss, Reed PY - 1999/// UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/2641950 ER -