Conservation Program Design & Payments for Ecosystem Services
Ongoing Research
Wood-Based Biomass for Bioenergy Production in the Southeastern United States
Principal Investigators: Elizabeth F. Pienaar, Robert Fletcher (University of Florida)
Graduate student: Ben North
Funding: United Stated Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
Jones G.M., Brosi B., Evans J.M., Gottlieb I.G.W., Loy X., Núñez-Regueiro M.M.,Ober H.K., Pienaar E.F., Pillay R., Pisarello K., Smith L.L., & Fletcher R.J. (2022) Conserving alpha and beta diversity in wood‐production landscapes. Conservation Biology, 36(3): e13872.
Abstract: International demand for wood and other forest products continues to grow rapidly, and uncertainties remain about how animal communities will respond to intensifying resource extraction associated with woody bioenergy production. We examined changes in alpha- and beta-diversity of four taxonomic groups (bats, bees, birds, reptiles) across a large portion of wood production landscapes in the southeastern United States, a biodiversity hotspot that is one of the principal suppliers of woody biomass globally. We sampled across a spatial gradient of paired forest land-uses that allowed us to evaluate biological community changes resulting from biomass harvests: residue removal following clearcuts, mid-rotation thinning, and reduced stand age from short-rotation practices, respectively. Short-rotation practices and residue removal following clearcuts were associated with reduced alpha-diversity (−14.1 and −13.9 species, respectively) and lower beta-diversity (i.e., Jaccard dissimilarity) between land-use pairs (0.46 and 0.50, respectively), whereas mid-rotation thinning increased alpha- (+3.5 species) and beta-diversity (0.59). We found that over the course of a stand rotation in a single location, biomass harvesting generally led to less biodiversity. Cross-taxa responses to resource extraction were poorly predicted by alpha-diversity: correlations in responses between taxonomic groups were highly variable in direction (−0.2 to 0.4) with large uncertainties. In contrast, beta-diversity patterns were highly consistent and predictable across taxa, where correlations in responses between taxonomic groups were all positive (0.05 to 0.4) with more narrow uncertainties. Beta-diversity may therefore be a more reliable and information-rich indicator than alpha-diversity in understanding animal community response to landscape change. Patterns in beta-diversity were primarily driven by turnover instead of simple species loss or gain, indicating that wood extraction is generating habitats that support different biological communities. Our work provides an unprecedented empirical analysis of the effects of alternative energy development on biodiversity and insights into the critical role of beta-diversity in biodiversity monitoring.
North B.W., & Pienaar E.F. (2021) Continued obstacles to wood-based biomass production in the southeastern United States. GCB Bioenergy, 13(7): 1043-1053.
Abstract: International demand for wood-based biomass for bioenergy production is growing, and private forestlands in the southeastern United States have the potential to supply that demand. The southeastern United States (Southeast) is the world’s largest exporter of wood pellets for bioenergy, primarily to the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU). However, wood-based biomass production accounts for only a small share of total wood removals from private forestlands in the Southeast. There is sufficient wood-based biomass in the Southeast to support greater production of wood pellets for domestic and international markets without redirecting timber from sawtimber and pulpwood production. In 2018-19, we conducted 39 semi-structured interviews with private forest landowners, foresters, loggers, and biomass production facility managers in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia to obtain their views on wood-based biomass production in the Southeast. Although landowners were interested in supplying wood for biomass as a byproduct of timber harvesting, they seldom participated in wood-based biomass production because of limited and unreliable access to biomass markets. Loggers and production facility managers had not invested in biomass production because they remain skeptical about the financial viability of wood-based biomass. Continued obstacles to biomass production include: price competition with fossil fuels and conventional wood products; inconsistent domestic government support for biomass production; concerns about meeting the sustainability requirements to export wood-based biomass to the UK and EU; and the high costs associated with harvesting low-grade wood for biomass. The barriers to biomass expansion in the southeastern United States remain primarily economic and political rather than biophysical.
Past Research
International Research
Payments for Ecosystem Services in Argentina
Núñez Godoy C.C., Branch, L.C., Pienaar, E.F., & Núñez-Regueiro, M. (2023) Determinants and costs of strategic enrollment of landowners in a payments for ecosystem services program in a deforestation hotspot: the Argentine Chaco forest. Ecosystem Services, 62: 101539.
Abstract: Understanding landowners’ decisions about how much land to enroll in payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs is essential to strategically target lands for conservation, prevent forest fragmentation, and thus maintain ecosystem services. In this study, we targeted private lands surrounding and connecting public protected areas in a deforestation hotspot, the Argentine Chaco forest. We used alternatively configured PES contracts in choice experiments to understand landowners’ decisions regarding how much land to enroll in PES. We found that factors influencing decisions on how much land to enroll differ from those influencing willingness to participate in PES. The percentage of their property that landowners were willing to enroll in the program increased with higher payments and permitted land use that closely aligned with traditional land use, specifically cattle ranching under tree canopy. Contract length was important in willingness to enroll but not in amount of land enrolled. Payments required to enroll all land in our study area, and thus conserve an unfragmented landscape, exceeded the financial resources of the Argentine PES program. Designing PES to enroll private lands on smaller strategic areas, in conjunction with other conservation initiatives, would be more effective than attempting to use PES alone to conserve large landscapes.
Núñez Godoy C.C., & Pienaar E.F. (2023) Motivations for, and barriers to, landowner participation in Argentina's payments for ecosystem services program. Conservation Science and Practice, e12991.
Abstract: Payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs are a common policy tool to conserve forests. Effective PES programs attain conservation and social equity outcomes by actively engaging diverse landowners in long-term land stewardship and meeting landowners’ needs. In 2017-2018, we conducted 32 in-depth interviews with landowners, technicians, and government officials to attain insights into how the PES program in Salta province, Argentina, has performed in terms of (1) motivating landowners to enroll in PES, and (2) ensuring their satisfaction with the design and performance of the program, a necessary precondition to ensure long-term forest stewardship. Interviewees suggested that landowners enroll in PES because they are restricted from engaging in more profitable land uses, they are not reliant on income from their land, they need PES payments to cover their land management costs, they are unable or unwilling to sell their land because their property values have been adversely impacted by land-use restrictions, they want to sustainably manage forested land, and/or they want to protect their property rights. Interviewees stated that land title requirements, conflicts over user rights, and high transaction costs hinder PES enrollment and exacerbate social conflicts between landowners and indigenous communities. Finally, interviewees questioned the conservation effectiveness of the PES program, owing to the program design and inadequate funding. Our findings suggest that engaging technicians, landowners, and indigenous communities in discussions on how the structure of the PES program could be improved might allow for shared learning, improved institutional trust, and the design of more flexible contracts that would facilitate sustained conservation and improved social equity.
Núñez Godoy C.C., Pienaar E.F., & Branch L.C. Willingness of private landowners to participate in forest conservation in the Chaco region of Argentina. Forest Policy and Economics, 138: 102708.
Abstract: To effectively conserve forests and the ecosystem services they provide, mechanisms are needed to promote conservation on private lands that reduce forest fragmentation, secure lands with high conservation value, and enhance landscape connectivity. Incentive-based programs like payments for ecosystem services (PES) are important policy tools for attaining conservation on private lands. In 2019, we conducted 81 in-person surveys with private forestland owners, whose properties are located on the border of protected areas and in corridors connecting protected areas in Argentina's Chaco forest. We examined landowners' preferences for alternative conservation incentives, how Argentina's current PES program could be altered to increase landowner enrollment, and the amount of compensation landowners require to enroll in PES. We found that knowledge of Argentina's PES program, motivations for forest ownership, attitudes toward forest conservation policy, and property characteristics influenced landowners' preferences for conservation program design. Although indigenous communities preferred conservation easements, other private landowners were more likely to choose a PES program. Research participants preferred PES programs with shorter contract lengths or that permitted them to engage in silvopasture. The payments research participants required to engage in land uses currently authorized under Argentina's PES program exceed current PES funding. Relying solely on PES to engage landowners in conservation may result in lost opportunities to conserve forest on private lands.
Community-Based Wildlife Conservation in Africa
Merz, L., E. F. Pienaar, T. Fik, S. Muyengwa, and B. Child (2023) Wildlife institutions highly salient to human attitudes toward wildlife. Conservation Science and Practice, 5(2): e12879.
Abstract: Efforts to promote human-wildlife coexistence may be overly focused on wildlife-related costs and benefits. We conducted research in Mozambique to gain insights into how governance of wildlife influences potential for human-wildlife coexistence. Mozambique is an under-studied region with a unique history of Portuguese rule, extended civil unrest, substantial wildlife trafficking, and current re-wilding efforts. We conducted surveys, logistic regression, and hotspot analysis to assess which variables are correlated with positive attitudes toward living with wildlife. Most respondents (61%) expressed positive attitudes toward living with wildlife. Attitudes were positively correlated with age, gender, distance from the park, wildlife benefits, restricted access to natural resources, and agreement with wildlife rules. Conflict with wildlife (i.e., livestock predation, human harm, and crop loss) were not significant predictors of attitudes. Respondents who agreed with the rules governing wildlife were 30-times more likely to have positive attitudes. This new and important finding highlights the possibility that institutions that address environmental justice, including the devolution of wildlife to local communities, may be more salient than the conventional measures of costs and benefits for understanding human-wildlife coexistence. Our results suggest that much more attention should be dedicated to the role of local institutions in promoting human-wildlife coexistence.
Larson, D. M., E. F. Pienaar and L. S. Jarvis (2016) Wildlife Conservation, Labor Supply, and Time Values in Rural Botswana. Environment and Development Economics, 21(2): 135-157.
Abstract: To improve wildlife conservation incentives in community-based natural resource management programs, a better understanding of rural communities' willingness to engage in wildlife conservation jobs is needed. We implement a discrete choice model explaining reservation wages for nine conservation jobs using contingent behavior data from rural Botswana residents. We present a model in which the conditional indirect utility function incorporates a more general value of time than has previously been used, and this specification outperforms the standard model. Sample estimates indicate that reservation wages are modestly higher for women than for men, and that residents have higher reservation wages for jobs requiring more exertion or involving more danger.
Pienaar, E. F., L. S. Jarvis and D. M. Larson (2014) Using a Choice Experiment Framework to Value Conservation-Contingent Development Programs: An Application to Botswana. Ecological Economics, 98: 39–48.
Abstract: Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programs in Botswana have had limited conservation effect because the provision of development benefits is not contingent on wildlife conservation. Building on existing discussions about which development initiatives these programs should implement, we use choice experiment data to empirically determine what value CBNRM community members place on both private and quasi-public development interventions. We show that these interventions are sufficient to incentivize households to engage in anti-poaching enforcement, revegetation of wildlife habitat and wildlife monitoring. Our methodology may be adapted to investigate a range of potential development interventions for which in-kind labor contributions are required.
Pienaar, E. F., L. S. Jarvis and D. M. Larson (2013) Creating Direct Incentives for Wildlife Conservation in Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programs in Botswana. Journal of Development Studies, 49(3): 313-331.
Abstract: Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programmes in Botswana were intended to create a wildlife conservation incentive by providing rural communities with tourism rights to wildlife—with limited effect. The 2007 CBNRM policy, increasing central control of CBNRM, is likely to further undermine communities' incentive to conserve wildlife. A complementary conservation corps is needed to create direct incentives to conserve wildlife and to reduce human-wildlife conflict. Responses to contingent behaviour questions indicate broad community support for such a programme and the availability of a suitable labour force willing to work at costs that can be financed from existing CBNRM revenues.
Research in the United States
Palm Beach County Natural Areas Program
Pienaar E. F., J. H. Lai, J. R. Soto and D. C. Adams (2019) “Would County Residents Vote for an Increase in Their Taxes to Conserve Native Habitat and Ecosystem Services? Funding Conservation in Palm Beach County, Florida” Ecological Economics 159: 24-34.
Abstract: In the 1990s, residents of Palm Beach County, Florida, voted in favor of two bonds to finance the acquisition and restoration of lands of environmental concern. In total, 31,445 acres of native habitat were conserved to create the Natural Areas Program. These lands protect both biodiversity and ecosystem services, including open space amenities, outdoor recreation, and flood protection in urban and peri-urban areas. In 2015, county staff determined that a dedicated source of funding (~$6.4 million per year) is required to maintain these natural areas. These funds would pay for continued revegetation of natural areas, removal of invasive plants, maintenance of recreation infrastructure, parking lots, fences, and signs, the provision of educational materials for visitors, and the monitoring of habitat, plants and animals to maintain ecosystem health. Palm Beach County's Department of Environmental Resources Management asked us to determine what value residents place on the Natural Areas Program and ecosystem services it provides. In 2017, we administered a stated preference choice experiment to residential property owners in Palm Beach County. Taking preference heterogeneity into account, we determined that allowing the natural areas to become degraded would likely reduce the welfare of 82% of respondents. Respondents were heterogeneous in terms of the value they placed on habitat conservation and ecosystem services. Our results suggest that Palm Beach County should hold a referendum on continued financing of the Natural Areas Program.
Everglades Restoration
Stainback, G. A., J. H. Lai, E. F. Pienaar, D. C. Adams, R. Wiederholt and C. Vorseth (2020) "Public Preferences for Ecological Indicators used in Everglades Restoration" PloS ONE 15(6): e0234051.
Abstract: The Everglades is one of the largest wetland ecosystems in the world covering almost 18,000 square miles from central Florida southward to Florida Bay. Over the 20th century, efforts to drain the Everglades for agriculture and development severely damaged the ecosystem so that today roughly 50% of the historic flow of water through the Everglades has been diverted elsewhere. In an attempt to restore the Everglades, the U.S. Congress authorized the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) in 2000, expected to cost over $16 billion and to take several decades to complete. We used the results from a stated preference choice experiment (SPCE) survey of Florida households to estimate the willingness to pay for several ecological attributes related to CERP performance indicators likely to be impacted by Everglades restoration. We also used a latent class model (LCM) to explore preference heterogeneity among respondents. On average, survey respondents were willing to pay for improvements in all of the attributes included in the survey, namely increased populations of wading birds, American alligators, endangered snail kites, and spotted seatrout, and reduced polluted discharges from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers. Willingness to pay was highest for reduced polluted discharges from Lake Okeechobee.
Extension Documents
North, B. W., J. D. Sullivan and E. F. Pienaar (2019) “WEC403/UW448 Basic Steps to Creating a Conservation Land Trust in Florida” University of Florida Electronic Data Information Source (EDIS), available at: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw448
North, B. W. and E. F. Pienaar (2017) “WEC391/UW436 Land Trusts in Florida: A Brief Guide to Land Trusts to Protect Land in Your Community” University of Florida Electronic Data Information Source (EDIS), available at: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw436
Kreye, M. M., E. F. Pienaar, and R. K. Boughton (2016) “WEC370/UW415: Landowner Cost-share Incentives and Payments for Ecosystem Services: A Comparison of Key Program Features” University of Florida Electronic Data Information Source (EDIS), available at: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw415
Kreye, M. M., E. F. Pienaar, R. K. Boughton and L. Wiggins (2016) “WEC369/UW414: Using the Ecosystem Services Approach to Advance Conservation Efforts on Private Lands” University of Florida Electronic Data Information Source (EDIS), available at: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw414
Pienaar, E. F. (2014) “WEC341/UW386: Valuing the Recreation Uses of Natural Resources: the Travel Cost Method” University of Florida Electronic Data Information Source (EDIS), available at: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw386
Pienaar, E. F. (2013) “WEC340/UW385: Measuring the Economic Value of the Environment and Natural Resources” University of Florida Electronic Data Information Source (EDIS), DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3329.0640.
Pienaar, E. F. (2013) “WEC338/UW383: The Use of Cost-Benefit Analysis in Environmental Policy” University of Florida Electronic Data Information Source (EDIS), DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2935.8488.