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1. Potential Supply of Midwest Cropland for Conversion to In-Field Prairie Strips

   https://doi.org/10.3368/le.98.2.082020-0129R1  

   Luther, Zachary R.; Swinton, Scott M.; Van Deynze, Braeden (May 2022, Land Economics)

   Prairie strips planted into crop fields offer multiple environmental benefits. This study estimates the willingness of U.S. farmers to convert 5% of their largest corn-soybean field to prairie strips in exchange for payment. Using stated preference results to estimate land supply, we find that 20% of farmers are willing to adopt prairie strips at payments equivalent to average Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) rental rates, corresponding to potential conversion of 90,000 acres on 1.8m acres of cropland. Farmers are likelier to adopt in smaller fields and when they perceive that prairie strips will benefit environmental quality or agricultural productivity. 

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2. Projected losses of ecosystem services in the US disproportionately affect non-white and lower-income populations

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23905-3  

   Gourevitch, Jesse D.; Alonso-Rodríguez, Aura M.; Aristizábal, Natalia; de Wit, Luz A.; Kinnebrew, Eva; Littlefield, Caitlin E.; Moore, Maya; Nicholson, Charles C.; Schwartz, Aaron J.; Ricketts, Taylor H. (June 2021, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Addressing how ecosystem services (ES) are distributed among groups of people is critical for making conservation and environmental policy-making more equitable. Here, we evaluate the distribution and equity of changes in ES benefits across demographic and socioeconomic groups in the United States (US) between 2020 and 2100. Specifically, we use land cover and population projections to model potential shifts in the supply, demand, and benefits of the following ES: provision of clean air, protection against a vector-borne disease (West Nile virus), and crop pollination. Across the US, changes in ES benefits are unevenly distributed among socioeconomic and demographic groups and among rural and urban communities, but are relatively uniform across geographic regions. In general, non-white, lower-income, and urban populations disproportionately bear the burden of declines in ES benefits. This is largely driven by the conversion of forests and wetlands to cropland and urban land cover in counties where these populations are expected to grow. In these locations, targeted land use policy interventions are required to avoid exacerbating inequalities already present in the US. 

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3. Spatial and Ecological Farmer Knowledge and Decision-Making about Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity

   https://doi.org/10.3390/land9100356  

   Kpienbaareh, Daniel; Bezner Kerr, Rachel; Luginaah, Isaac; Wang, Jinfei; Lupafya, Esther; Dakishoni, Laifolo; Shumba, Lizzie (October 2020, Land)

   null (Ed.)

   Amid climate change, biodiversity loss and food insecurity, there is the growing need to draw synergies between micro-scale environmental processes and practices, and macro-level ecosystem dynamics to facilitate conservation decision-making. Adopting this synergistic approach can improve crop yields and profitability more sustainably, enhance livelihoods and mitigate climate change. Using spatially explicit data generated through a public participatory geographic information system methodology (n = 37), complemented by spatial analysis, interviews (n = 68) and focus group discussions (n = 4), we explored the synergies between participatory farmer-to-farmer agroecology knowledge sharing, farm-level decisions and their links with macro-level prioritization of conservation strategies. We mapped farm conditions and ecosystem services (ES) of two village areas with varying knowledge systems about farming. Results of the farm-level analysis revealed variations in spatial perception among farmers, differences in understanding the dynamics of crop growth and varying priorities for extension services based on agroecological knowledge. The ES use pattern analysis revealed hotspots in the mapped ES indicators with similarities in both village areas. Despite the similarities in ES use, priorities for biodiversity conservation align with farmers’ understanding of farm processes and practices. Farmers with training in agroecology prioritized strategies that are ecologically friendly while farmers with no agroecology training prioritized the use of strict regulations. Importantly, the results show that agroecology can potentially contribute to biodiversity conservation and food security, with climate change mitigation co-benefits. The findings generally contribute to debates on land sparing and land sharing conservation strategies and advance social learning theory as it pertains to acquiring agroecological knowledge for improved yield and a sustainable environment. 

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4. Improving inferences about private land conservation by accounting for incomplete reporting

   https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13673  

   Williamson, Matthew A.; Dickson, Brett G.; Hooten, Mevin B.; Graves, Rose A.; Lubell, Mark N.; Schwartz, Mark W. (March 2021, Conservation Biology)

   Abstract Private lands provide key habitat for imperiled species and are core components of function protectected area networks; yet, their incorporation into national and regional conservation planning has been challenging. Identifying locations where private landowners are likely to participate in conservation initiatives can help avoid conflict and clarify trade‐offs between ecological benefits and sociopolitical costs. Empirical, spatially explicit assessment of the factors associated with conservation on private land is an emerging tool for identifying future conservation opportunities. However, most data on private land conservation are voluntarily reported and incomplete, which complicates these assessments. We used a novel application of occupancy models to analyze the occurrence of conservation easements on private land. We compared multiple formulations of occupancy models with a logistic regression model to predict the locations of conservation easements based on a spatially explicit social–ecological systems framework. We combined a simulation experiment with a case study of easement data in Idaho and Montana (United States) to illustrate the utility of the occupancy framework for modeling conservation on private land. Occupancy models that explicitly accounted for variation in reporting produced estimates of predictors that were substantially less biased than estimates produced by logistic regression under all simulated conditions. Occupancy models produced estimates for the 6 predictors we evaluated in our case study that were larger in magnitude, but less certain than those produced by logistic regression. These results suggest that occupancy models result in qualitatively different inferences regarding the effects of predictors on conservation easement occurrence than logistic regression and highlight the importance of integrating variable and incomplete reporting of participation in empirical analysis of conservation initiatives. Failure to do so can lead to emphasizing the wrong social, institutional, and environmental factors that enable conservation and underestimating conservation opportunities in landscapes where social norms or institutional constraints inhibit reporting. 

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5. Informational nudges in conservation auctions: A field experiment with U.S. farmers

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102504  

   Wallander, Steven; Paul, Laura A; Ferraro, Paul J; Messer, Kent D; Iovanna, Richard (October 2023, Food Policy)

   In the U.S., the fifth largest ‘‘crop’’ is vegetation dedicated to environmental conservation. Over 22 million acres of perennial covers are planted on environmentally sensitive land enrolled in U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), one of the largest agricultural conservation programs in the world. About half of CRP lands are enrolled through a complex reverse auction called the General Signup. The communication of program options to participants could have an important behavioral impact. Psychologists have found that information presentation in complex decision environments can interact with the bounded rationality and cognitive biases of decision makers. We tested two changes in the status quo CRP decision environment using an incentivized, lab-in-the-field experiment with 701 prior General Signup participants. First, program participants typically make an active choice over which cover practice to plant and how much of a discount to offer, where the discount is a reduction in their annual program payment. Changing that default to an opt-out, high-scoring offer resulted in a 13 percentage point increase in selection of the best practice and a 48 percent increase in the average discount. In the actual CRP, that increase in discounting would reduce total program costs by about $30 million per signup. Second, shifting to real-time updating of offer scores modestly reduced the frequency with which participants revised their offers, suggesting a reduction in transaction costs. From a policy perspective, these results suggest that small changes in conservation auctions could both improve the quality of conservation practices and reduce program costs. 

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