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 Much
of the habitat needed to conserve biodiversity is on private land.
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.
Simply buying all the needed land is neither feasible nor desirable.
First, 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. Second, 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.
Finally, not all landowners are interested in selling their lands.
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.
In 1998, Defenders of Wildlife published a report entitled "National
Stewardship Incentives: Conservation Strategies for U.S. Landowners."
The report describes various incentives and management recommendations
for biodiversity conservation on private lands. A follow-up report
released in 2002, "Conservation
in America: State Government Incentives for Habitat Conservation"
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.
In December 2004, Defenders of Wildlife published Status
and Trends in Federal Resource Conservation Incentive Programs:
1996-2001. 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.
Also in 2004, Defenders made in-depth examinations of various
incentive programs:
Criteria for Effective Habitat Incentive Programs. In
2005, Defenders of Wildlife developed ten criteria for successful
habitat incentive programs in order to clarify what makes a program
effective and what inhibits its success, both at the program level
and collectively at the state level. Click
here to read criteria.
State Conservation Incentive Programs: A Review of Effectiveness
for Habitat Conservation. This project, developed in 2005,
reviews different initiatives that states are taking toward conservation
through incentive programs, and to assess how these programs contribute
specifically to habitat conservation. The goal of the project
is to highlight successful and innovative programs at the state-level
that policy makers and program coordinators can use to improve
and initiate effective habitat incentive programs in other states.
Includes in-depth reviews of four states' programs. Click
here to read more.
Habitat in Agricultural Landscapes: How Much is Enough? A State of the Science Literature Review. By Kristen Blann. 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. Read online or download pdf. Click here to view.
 Farm
Bill:
- Defenders of Wildlife's Comments for the
Development of USDA Recommendations for the 2007 Farm Bill (70
Federal Register 35221 (June 17, 2005).
Defenders of Wildlife offers these suggestions for improvement
of the USDA's conservation programs for the 2007 Farm Bill.
Defenders is dedicated to the conservation of America's wildlife
and the habitats upon which species depend, and we recognize
that conservation of the full suite of biological diversity
in this country will necessarily entail conservation measures
on private lands in general and agriculture lands specifically.
Continues in pdf file. Click
here to view.
- Read also Agricultural Stewardship in America's
Recommendations for the 2007 Farm Bill. Pdf file. Click
here to view.
Agriculture Stewardship in America
Fact Sheets (click on links to view reports):
National Habitat Incentives Workshop.
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. For
background papers, click here. To read workshop
results, click here. For a user-friendly narrative summarizing
the results of the workshop, download
a pdf of the final paper.
Updated 4-4-06
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