ABSTRACT

We examined an agri-environment scheme employing payments for environmental services (PES) to promote conservation practices on working agricultural lands. Our goal was to identify key factors supporting (and impeding) participation and the adoption of ‘best management practices’ (BMPs), with a focus on wildlife practices. We used scheme-contract records and grower surveys to develop regression models analyzing each decision. Model predictors represented growers’ ability and their willingness to participate and adopt BMPs. Results showed that external rewards alone promoted participation as well as the adoption of production-oriented BMPs, but both external incentives and internal, non-economic motivations were critical for wildlife practices. These results affirm the view that PES-based incentives are necessary, but insufficient for wildlife-practice adoption. In addition, we add two wildlife-specific motivations to the conservation-adoption literature’s typology: a sense of responsibility among hunters to steward wildlife, and a desire to foster a positive societal perception of farming through wildlife stewardship.

摘要

我们研究了一项采用环境服务付费 (PES) 来促进耕地保护实践的农业环境计划。我们的目标是确定支持（和阻碍）参与和采用“最佳管理实践”（BMP）的关键因素，重点是野生动物实践。我们使用计划合同记录和种植者调查来开发分析每个决策的回归模型。模型预测变量代表种植者的能力以及他们参与和采用 BMP 的意愿。结果表明，仅外部奖励就促进了参与以及以生产为导向的 BMP 的采用，但外部激励和内部非经济动机对野生动物实践至关重要。这些结果证实了基于 PES 的激励措施是必要的观点，但不足以采用野生动物实践。此外，我们在保护收养文献的类型学中添加了两个特定于野生动物的动机：猎人对管理野生动物的责任感，以及希望通过野生动物管理培养积极的社会对农业的看法。