J. Sanford Rikoon

Ecosystem Management and Landowner Concern About Regulations: A Case Study in the Missouri Ozarks

This article examines sociopolitical dimensions of ecosystem management through a case study of the Brush Creek EARTH Project, a watershed program in southcentral Missouri. Data were collected through person-to-person structured interviews during the summer of 1997. We investigate factors, particularly the role of trust and efficacy, related to landowner concern that participation in voluntary ecosystem management programs will lead to future regulations of their land use. Many landowners were concerned that participation in the Brush Creek EARTH Project would make them vulnerable to future regulations of their land use. Landowners who were more trusting of the agencies involved in ecosystem management were less likely to be concerned that participation would lead to future regulations. The implications of this study are that the sociopolitical dimensions need to be addressed in ecosystem management, and that specific attention needs to be given to developing trusting relationships with stakeholders.This article examines sociopolitical dimensions of ecosystem management through a case study of the Brush Creek EARTH Project, a watershed program in southcentral Missouri. Data were collected through person-to-person structured interviews during the summer of 1997. We investigate factors, particularly the role of trust and efficacy, related to landowner concern that participation in voluntary ecosystem management programs will lead to future regulations of their land use. Many landowners were concerned that participation in the Brush Creek EARTH Project would make them vulnerable to future regulations of their land use. Landowners who were more trusting of the agencies involved in ecosystem management were less likely to be concerned that participation would lead to future regulations. The implications of this study are that the sociopolitical dimensions need to be addressed in ecosystem management, and that specific attention needs to be given to developing trusting relationships with stakeholders.

Non-operator landowner interest in agroforestry practices in two Missouri watersheds

Land tenure has long been considered a critical factor in determining the adoption and long-term maintenance of agroforestry practices. Empirical evidence from non-US settings has consistently shown that secure land tenure is positively associated with agroforestry adoption. In the US, over 40% of private agricultural land is farmed by someone other than the owner. Given the importance of land tenure in agroforestry decisions in other countries and the magnitude of non-operator landownership in the US, there has been surprisingly little focus on land tenure in the temperate agroforestry literature. Using data from a 1999 survey in Missouri, this study explores factors associated with non-operator landowner interest in agroforestry. Results suggest that differences in farming orientation are linked to interest in agroforestry. Closer ties to farming, stronger financial motivations for landownership, and higher proportion of land planted to row crops were negatively related to interest in agroforestry among non-operator landowners. Environmental or recreational motivations for landownership and contacts with natural resource professionals were positively associated with interest in agroforestry. These results, consistent with earlier qualitative research suggesting that farm operators who have a strong “conventional farming identity” were less interested in agroforestry, point to a divide between landowners for whom environmental and recreational values play an important role in ownership motivation and those for whom financial considerations take precedence. The findings imply that agroforestry development programs in the US should take non-operator landowners and their farming and ownership orientations into account when designing research and outreach efforts.

Landowner resistance to lease hunting: A sociocultural perspective

Abstract Lease hunting programs provide a strategy to address wildlife management on private land in a manner that provides economic compensation to landowners. This paper proposes a sociocultural framework for understanding low rates of participation in lease hunting programs by landowners. We suggest that the predominant emphasis on private property boundaries and the utilization of economic incentives inherent in lease hunting to promote wildlife management overlooks significant cultural and social dimensions of hunting and wildlife. Specifically, we examine lease hunting in relation to local land use, hunting as a sociocultural system, and the symbolic construction of the landscape.

Imagined culture and cultural imaging: Cultural implications of the USDA‐SCS “Harmony”; campaign

From January, 1993, through April, 1994, the USDA Soil Conservation Service conducted a multimedia public education campaign titled “Harmony.”; The campaign utilized Native American spokespersons and constructed texts on Native American environmental ethics to raise public awareness of conservation and to motivate participation in various programs. Although successful in terms of generating public responses, Harmonys use of culture raises issues of representation, transference, and brokering of environmental value systems. Cultural representation is examined in terms of authenticity, historical reconstruction, and stereotyping of Native Americans. Transference issues include attempts to bridge Native American and Euro‐American assumptions about nature and human‐nature relationships. Cultural brokering has to do with the secularization and decontextualization of the Native American sacred cultural systems for purposes of wider public consumption. Although such campaigns may achieve positive public relatio...