What's in Noah's Wallet? Land Conservation Spending in the United States

Previous estimates of the funding needed to secure a network of habitat conservation areas as defined by conservation planning efforts amount to approximately $5 billion to $8 billion per year over 40 years. We found that US federal and state spending on land conservation—which we use as a surrogate...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioscience 2007-05, Vol.57 (5), p.419-423
Main Authors: LERNER, JEFF, MACKEY, JANET, CASEY, FRANK
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
best management practices
Birds
Charitable foundations
Conservation (Environment)
Conservation areas
conservation practices
cost analysis
Data collection
DEPARTMENTS
Easements
Environmental protection
Federal Programs
Funding
Government aid
Government finance
Government funding
Government spending
Habitat conservation
Habitats
Investments
Land conservation
land economics
land management
Land trusts
Land use
Landscape protection
Private land
Private property
Public lands
ROUNDTABLE
Soil Science
Statistical data
Water conservation
Wildlife conservation
Wildlife habitats
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Previous estimates of the funding needed to secure a network of habitat conservation areas as defined by conservation planning efforts amount to approximately $5 billion to $8 billion per year over 40 years. We found that US federal and state spending on land conservation—which we use as a surrogate for habitat conservation spending—totaled $32 billion between 1992 and 2001. Moreover, state spending is very uneven geographically, with 80 percent of the investment coming from 20 percent of the states. Most of the federal investment is in short-term land-rental or cost-share programs rather than permanent easements or fee title acquisitions. These results suggest that the federal and state governments are not spending enough to create a network of habitat conservation areas, nor tracking spending or acreage adequately to determine the long-term effectiveness of this habitat conservation investment.
ISSN:0006-3568
1525-3244
DOI:10.1641/B570507