Shoreline armoring is a pervasive driver of habitat loss and ecosystem decline along coastlines. Nature‐based strategies for coastal protection, such as “living shorelines,” offer potential alternatives to armoring and are rapidly gaining traction among conservation scientists and practitioners. However, along residential coasts where armoring has often occurred at high rates, transitioning away from armoring has been generally slow. We studied the attitudes, beliefs, and decisions of waterfront homeowners with a goal of identifying effective incentives for living shorelines as a conservation tool for reversing coastal habitat loss. We show that while only 18% of homeowners with armored shorelines would willingly transition to living shorelines during a key window of opportunity, a modest economic incentive could increase the likelihood among 43% of all respondents and up to 61% of recent homeowners. Our study demonstrates potential pathways for navigating social, economic, and environmental influences on landowner decisions for coastal habitat conservation.

中文翻译：

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为居住海岸线设计有效的激励措施，作为住宅沿岸的栖息地保护策略

海岸线装甲是沿海岸线栖息地丧失和生态系统衰退的普遍驱动因素。基于自然的沿海保护策略，例如“活着的海岸线”，提供了装甲的替代方案，并迅速在保护科学家和从业人员中引起关注。但是，在装甲频繁发生的住宅沿岸，从装甲过渡的步伐通常较慢。我们研究了海滨房主的态度，信念和决定，目的是确定有效的居住海岸线激励措施，将其作为扭转沿海生境丧失的一种保护手段。我们证明，虽然只有18％的拥有铠甲海岸线的房主愿意在关键的机遇期内过渡到居住的海岸线，适度的经济激励措施可能会增加43％的受访者和高达61％的近期房主的可能性。我们的研究表明了潜在的途径，可以引导社会，经济和环境影响沿海所有者保护土地所有者的决策。