Conservation begins after breakfast: the relative importance of opportunity cost and identity in shaping private landholder participation in conservation

dc.contributor.authorConradie, Beatrice
dc.contributor.authorTreurnicht, Martina
dc.contributor.authorEsler, Karen
dc.contributor.authorGaertner, Mirijam
dc.date.accessioned2016-05-11T14:29:34Z
dc.date.available2016-05-11T14:29:34Z
dc.date.issued2013
dc.date.updated2016-05-11T14:27:45Z
dc.description.abstractThe conservation opportunity literature increasingly emphasises opportunity cost as an important determinant of willingness to engage in conservation on private land. We investigated the explanatory power of a group of opportunity cost variables in the decision to participate in a landscape-level conservation initiative on the Agulhas Plain, Cape Floristic Region. Opportunity cost variables outperformed affiliation and demographic variables when used in one model and had almost as much explanatory power as the combined model when used on their own. In the opportunity cost model, conservation was positively related to farm size and education and negatively related to share of income from farming and size of the remnant of natural vegetation on the farm. Of these relationships, that between education and participation was the most elastic: a 1% increase in education led to an almost 2% increase in the likelihood of participating in conservation. A large group of identity variables jointly explained nothing, but a subset of age, gender and Afrikaans language status had some explanatory power when used separately. We suspected this subset of demographic variables to have done nothing but proxy patterns of opportunity cost in the farming community. When re-estimated with the untransformed remnant as a share of farm size rather than an area, similar results were obtained and the negative sign on the remnant was confirmed. We concluded that understanding what opportunity cost conservation imposes on private landholders is not only important, but critical, for predicting which private land will come into and stay in conservation.en_ZA
dc.identifierhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2012.08.028
dc.identifier.apacitationConradie, B., Treurnicht, M., Esler, K., & Gaertner, M. (2013). Conservation begins after breakfast: the relative importance of opportunity cost and identity in shaping private landholder participation in conservation. <i>Biological Conservation</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19609en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationConradie, Beatrice, Martina Treurnicht, Karen Esler, and Mirijam Gaertner "Conservation begins after breakfast: the relative importance of opportunity cost and identity in shaping private landholder participation in conservation." <i>Biological Conservation</i> (2013) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19609en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationConradie, B., Treurnicht, M., Esler, K., & Gaertner, M. (2013). Conservation begins after breakfast: The relative importance of opportunity cost and identity in shaping private landholder participation in conservation. Biological conservation, 158, 334-341.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn0006-3207en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article AU - Conradie, Beatrice AU - Treurnicht, Martina AU - Esler, Karen AU - Gaertner, Mirijam AB - The conservation opportunity literature increasingly emphasises opportunity cost as an important determinant of willingness to engage in conservation on private land. We investigated the explanatory power of a group of opportunity cost variables in the decision to participate in a landscape-level conservation initiative on the Agulhas Plain, Cape Floristic Region. Opportunity cost variables outperformed affiliation and demographic variables when used in one model and had almost as much explanatory power as the combined model when used on their own. In the opportunity cost model, conservation was positively related to farm size and education and negatively related to share of income from farming and size of the remnant of natural vegetation on the farm. Of these relationships, that between education and participation was the most elastic: a 1% increase in education led to an almost 2% increase in the likelihood of participating in conservation. A large group of identity variables jointly explained nothing, but a subset of age, gender and Afrikaans language status had some explanatory power when used separately. We suspected this subset of demographic variables to have done nothing but proxy patterns of opportunity cost in the farming community. When re-estimated with the untransformed remnant as a share of farm size rather than an area, similar results were obtained and the negative sign on the remnant was confirmed. We concluded that understanding what opportunity cost conservation imposes on private landholders is not only important, but critical, for predicting which private land will come into and stay in conservation. DA - 2013 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - Biological Conservation LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2013 SM - 0006-3207 T1 - Conservation begins after breakfast: the relative importance of opportunity cost and identity in shaping private landholder participation in conservation TI - Conservation begins after breakfast: the relative importance of opportunity cost and identity in shaping private landholder participation in conservation UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19609 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/19609
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationConradie B, Treurnicht M, Esler K, Gaertner M. Conservation begins after breakfast: the relative importance of opportunity cost and identity in shaping private landholder participation in conservation. Biological Conservation. 2013; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19609.en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisherElsevieren_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentCentre for Social Science Research(CSSR)en_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.sourceBiological Conservationen_ZA
dc.source.urihttp://www.journals.elsevier.com/biological-conservation/
dc.subject.otherConservation on private land
dc.subject.otherOpportunity cost
dc.subject.otherAgriculture
dc.subject.otherCape Floristic Region
dc.titleConservation begins after breakfast: the relative importance of opportunity cost and identity in shaping private landholder participation in conservationen_ZA
dc.typeJournal Articleen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
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