Incentives for Conservation

Much of the habitat needed to conserve biodiversity is on private land. Many landowners voluntarily undertake conservation efforts, and many more might if they get appropriate encouragement and assistance through government incentive programs.

Private Land and Biodiversity: The Numbers

Assessments in various parts of the United States have suggested that 15-30 percent of the land in any state or ecoregion must be managed for conservation to maintain native flora and fauna in functioning ecosystems. Much of the priority habitat identified in these assessments is in private ownership, especially low elevation lands with access to water. Additionally, 40 percent of threatened and endangered species are found only on private land.

Why Not Just Buy the Land?

Simply buying all the needed land is neither feasible nor desirable.

1.  It would cost approximately $150-200 billion to purchase the amount of land necessary for a national habitat conservation system. The gap between the resources needed and those available for habitat protection remain staggering. In 1998, for example, state and local open space and natural area bond initiatives totaled only $8 billion nationwide, and only a fraction of these local funds are used to purchase priority habitats for biodiversity purposes.

2.  There is political resistance to the concept of increasing the amount of public land, especially in the western states where public lands comprise the bulk of all ownerships.

3. Not all landowners are interested in selling their lands.

Private Property Owners Want to Help

Yet property owners across the country want to find ways to conserve wildlife and habitat on the lands they own and manage. Many of these landowners voluntarily undertake conservation efforts, and many more might if they get appropriate encouragement and assistance through government incentive programs.

Although most traditional government incentive programs have been made available to broad classes of landowners, more specific targeting of incentive programs to address specific habitat priorities may be critical in the future, given the limited financial resources available for biodiversity conservation.

To learn more about what makes a successful voluntary incentive program, please read Criteria for Effective Programs.

Review of the Effectiveness of State Incentive Programs

We have examined some incentive programs undertaken by the states of Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon and Washington.

Read about how these programs contribute specifically to habitat conservation.

Federal Incentives

The federal government offers a number of different incentive programs to encourage private landowners to participate in conservation activities on their property.

Learn more about Federal Incentives

Publications

For further reading about what programs are available at the state and federal level, please see the publications below:

An Assessment of Market-based Approaches to Providing Ecosystem Services on Agricultural Lands
Ecosystem markets and payments increasingly are seen as promising approaches that can improve land conservation in both quality and scale. In this article Defenders of Wildlife's economists examine the different forms markets and payments can take, and critically assess their potential to achieve conservation objectives in different contexts.
Incentives for Biodiversity Conservation
Published in 2006, this report is an economic and policy assessment of the biological effectiveness and economic efficiency of incentive mechanisms for private landowners to conserve biodiversity.
Oregon Stewardship Incentives
First published in 1998 by Sara Vickerman, this report on voluntary incentives for conservation in the state of Oregon set the standard for helping landowners navigate the many voluntary incentive programs that exist at the state and federal level.
National Stewardship Incentives: Conservation Strategies for U.S. Landowners
Published in 1998, this report describes various incentives and management recommendations for biodiversity conservation on private lands at the national level.
Status and Trends in Federal Programs
This retrospective report on federal resource conservation incentive programs constitutes one in a series of publications by Defenders of Wildlife's Conservation Economics Program to address wildlife habitat stewardship incentives in the United States.
Habitat in Agricultural Landscapes
This publication, released in 2006, provides a comprehensive synthesis of current understanding regarding conservation of fish and wildlife habitat and biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, and establishes a framework for setting conservation goals, policy, and future research priorities.
Measuring for Success
In the summer of 2004 Defenders of Wildlife hosted a national incentives workshop to develop some specific recommendations concerning assistance to private landowners for conserving endangered and other species and their habitat.
Measuring for Success: Background materials
Read also the background and supporting materials assembled by participants for the Measuring for Success workshop.
Conservation In America
This report, released in 2002, compiled information about conservation incentives offered by state governments to private landowners. It contains a summary of Defenders' findings, including a breakdown of the different types of state government incentives, examples of successful programs, recommendations, and profiles of the conservation incentives in each of the 50 states.