Nooshin Torabi

Locating financial incentives among diverse motivations for long-term private land conservation

A variety of policy instruments are used to promote the conservation of biodiversity on private land. These instruments are often employed in unison to encourage land stewardship beneficial for biodiversity across a broad range of program types, but questions remain about which instruments are the appropriate tools when seeking long-term change to land-management practice. Drawing on three case studies, two in Australia and one in South Africa, spanning various program types—a biodiverse carbon planting scheme, a covenanting program, and a voluntary stewardship program—we investigate the importance of financial incentives and other mechanisms from the landholder’s perspective. From participant interviews we find that landholders have preconceived notions of stewardship ethics. Motivations to enroll into a private land conservation program are not necessarily what drives ongoing participation, and continued delivery of multiple mechanisms will likely ensure long-term landholder engagement. Financial incentives are beneficial in lowering uptake costs to landholders but building landholder capacity, management assistance, linking participants to a network of conservation landholders, and recognition of conservation efforts may be more successful in fostering long-term biodiversity stewardship. Furthermore, we argue that diverse, multiple instrument approaches are needed to provide the flexibility required for dynamic, adaptive policy responses. We raise a number of key considerations for conservation organizations regarding the appropriate mix of financial and nonfinancial components of their programs to address long-term conservation objectives.

Landholders’ Sociocultural Drivers Influencing Decision-Making and Participation in Carbon Farming

Torabi explores the social and cultural drivers of landholders that impact on their decisions about participating in biodiverse carbon schemes. Factors like uncertainty about political and market elements could influence participations are discussed. Understanding these elements could assist the improvement of adaptive governance systems.

Understanding Stakeholders: Awareness of Carbon Farming Schemes

Torabi explores the factors that impact awareness about biodiverse carbon schemes, presenting the findings from the socio-demographic survey and landholders’ interviews. This chapter explores the first two steps of adoption theory and explores landholders’ motivations and barriers in each stage. These findings could assist policymakers in progressing towards adaptive governance in the carbon farming policies.

Similarities and Differences in Stakeholders’ Voices

This chapter presents the similarities and differences in the opinions of landholders and other stakeholders about participation in biodiverse carbon plantings. Torabi discusses how far the idea of adaptive governance is in practice from what theory explains. This is demonstrated by representing a model of adaptive governance and the empirical evidence for each step of the model.

Introduction: Biodiverse Carbon Plantings as a Tool for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change

This chapter offers an extensive overview of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. The Australian carbon farming policy as one of the means to tackle the wicked problem of climate change has been discussed in detail. This chapter also explores the role of landholders as change agents in the uptake of carbon farming policies.

Understanding Stakeholders: Post-adoption in Carbon Farming

This chapter explores the experiences of landholders about the established trees on their properties. This is the final step of adoption theory. Hence, understanding these factors could provide an opportunity for a long-term success of carbon farming schemes. Torabi discusses how this fits into the elements of adaptive governance.