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Effects of biological monitoring and results outreach on private landowner conservation management.

ABSTRACT: Sustained management efforts by private landowners are crucial for the long-term success of private land natural resource conservation and related environmental benefits. Landowner outreach is a primary means of recruiting private landowners into voluntary conservation incentive programs, and could also help sustain conservation behaviors through time. However, evaluation of outreach targeting landowners during or after participation in natural resource conservation incentive programs is lacking. We assessed two methods of landowner outreach associated with a Natural Resources Conservation Service incentive program targeting effective management of early successional forest habitat on private land in the Appalachians and Upper Great Lakes regions of the United States. While early successional forest habitat benefits many wildlife species, the program target species were the Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) and American Woodcock (Scolopax minor). After habitat management through the program occurred, biological technicians monitored wildlife and vegetation on enrolled properties and results were communicated to landowners in mailed packets. Our research focused on whether landowner interactions with technicians or receipt of result mailings could influence landowner post-program management intentions and management-related cognitions (e.g., agency trust, perceptions of outcomes). We conducted a telephone survey with landowners from January to May 2017, and analyzed survey data using quantitative group comparisons and qualitative coding methods. Landowners that accompanied biological technicians on monitoring site visits had higher agency trust and more positive perceptions of program outcomes. Result mailings did not improve landowner perceptions of program outcomes or agency trust, but did provide benefits such as increased landowner knowledge about birds. Neither outreach method was associated with more positive landowner post-program management intentions. Our findings underline the importance and potential of direct interactions between conservation biologists and landowners. These two forms of non-traditional outreach administered by biologists could be a worthwhile component of future conservation program evaluations on private lands.

SUBMITTER: Lutter SH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5884542 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effects of biological monitoring and results outreach on private landowner conservation management.

Lutter Seth H SH Dayer Ashley A AA Heggenstaller Emily E Larkin Jeffery L JL

PloS one 20180404 4

Sustained management efforts by private landowners are crucial for the long-term success of private land natural resource conservation and related environmental benefits. Landowner outreach is a primary means of recruiting private landowners into voluntary conservation incentive programs, and could also help sustain conservation behaviors through time. However, evaluation of outreach targeting landowners during or after participation in natural resource conservation incentive programs is lacking ...[more]

PMID: 29617388

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Project description:Routinely censusing rhinoceros' populations is central to their conservation and protection from illegal killing. In Namibia, both white (Ceratotherium simum) and black (Diceros bicornis) rhinoceros occur on private land, in the latter case under a custodianship program of the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET). Black rhinoceros custodian landowners are responsible for the protection of the rhinoceroses on their land and are required to report regularly to the MET. Monitoring imposes a financial burden on custodians yet many of the techniques used involve expensive monitoring techniques that include the need for aerial support and/or animal instrumentation. During May and June 2018, WildTrack undertook a pilot study to census black and white rhinoceros on three private custodianship properties in Namibia. We tested three footprint identification methods for obtaining estimates of rhinoceros populations in an effort to provide less costly alternative monitoring options to rhinoceros custodians. The first was a full monitoring protocol with two components: (a) tracking each individual animal and matching them to their footprints, (b) identifying those individuals from the heel lines on the prints. The second method used simple visual heel line identification ex-situ, and the third method used just an objective footprint identification technique. These methods offer different options of fieldwork labour and cost and were designed to offer monitoring options to custodians that provided information about rhinoceros movement and location, with minimal disturbance to the rhinoceros, and best matched their human and economic resources. In this study, we describe the three methods and report the results of the pilot study to compare and evaluate their utility for rhinoceros monitoring. The first method successfully matched each trail photographed to a known rhinoceros at each site. When the other two methods disagreed with the first, they did so by failing to match single trails to a known rhinoceros, thereby creating fictitious identities consisting of a single trail. This failure occurred twice in one application, but otherwise at most once. We expect this failure can be eliminated through more stringent criteria for collecting photographs of footprints. We also briefly compare the use of footprint monitoring with other commonly used monitoring techniques. On this basis, landowners hosting rhinoceros can evaluate which method best suits their needs and resources.

Dataset Information

Effects of biological monitoring and results outreach on private landowner conservation management.

Publications

Effects of biological monitoring and results outreach on private landowner conservation management.

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