Source: UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND submitted to
BENEFITS AND COSTS OF NATURAL RESOURCES POLICIES AFFECTING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LANDS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0206253
Grant No.
(N/A)
Project No.
RI00W-1133
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
W-1133
Program Code
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Oct 1, 2005
Project End Date
Sep 30, 2007
Grant Year
(N/A)
Project Director
Swallow, S. K.
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
19 WOODWARD HALL 9 EAST ALUMNI AVENUE
KINGSTON,RI 02881
Performing Department
ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCE ECONOMICS
Non Technical Summary
The Rhode Island portion of this project concerns developing and testing the validity of methods to measure the value of land conservation in rural communities facing residential development. The value of ecosystem services is particularly a focus. The project will also attempt to develop a market for a specific ecosystem service, nesting habitat for birds on farm hayfields, whereby farmers can sell ecosystem services as a new product to nearby residents. The purposes of the project are to (1) provide a better understanding of the methods by which economists measure the value of environmental goods, particularly associated with land conservation; (2) to assess an impact fee policy as an alternative tool for local communities to address the balance of development and conservation in their communities and (3) to identify means by which a commercial market could develop around an ecosystem service that is often viewed as a public good (benefiting many people simultaneously, regardless of whether the beneficiaries pay to encourage production of the good). Results could improve the validity of benefit cost analysis and could establish new approaches to market based solutions to sustaining ecosystem services in our economy.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
25%
Applied
50%
Developmental
25%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
6090599301025%
6050120301050%
6050850301025%
Knowledge Area
609 - Economic Theory and Methods; 605 - Natural Resource and Environmental Economics;

Subject Of Investigation
0599 - Recreational resources, general/other; 0120 - Land; 0850 - Wildlife habitats;

Field Of Science
3010 - Economics;
Goals / Objectives
1. Estimate the Economic Benefits of Ecosystem Management of Forests and Watersheds 3. Calculate the Benefits and Costs of Agro-Environmental Policies 4. Estimate the Economic Values of Agricultural Land Preservation and Open Space
Project Methods
The Rhode Island sub-project will consider problems related to land conservation and rural community quality of life. The effort will be applied in three areas: (1) to identify whether rural communities place a higher value on sustaining undeveloped land (farm or wooded land) of the type that is most abundant in their community; (2) to develop and test methods for improving the validity of methods to estimate the value of public goods, such as land conservation; (3) to assess whether environmental impact fees could be a practical approach for communities seeking to balance land conservation with development; (4) testing methods to develop new markets for ecological services from undeveloped land, including farms. Areas (1) and (2) will involve the conduct or analysis of data collected through a survey questionnaire concerning the preferences and willingness to pay of residents for land conservation. In some questions, individuals will be asked to make real payments if they report a positive willingness to pay, allowing tests for hypothetical biases based values estimated from ordinary survey questions. In the third area, a combination of theoretical and math programming simulations will be used. In the fourth area, research will focus on developing contracts between farmers and consumers, whereby farmers alter hayfield harvesting practices to improve the survivorship of grassland nesting birds and consumers who reside nearby are asked to pay for a share of the farmer costs to provide habitat services for birds. Research will be conducted using methods and frameworks of environmental economists. Survey questionnaires will be designed using focus groups and pretesting of questions, to assure that respondents understand questions as intended by researchers. Ecosystem service markets will also use focus groups to develop marketing plans that incorporate benefits to birds, landscape amenities and farm viability as positive reasons for consummers to consider purchasing shares of a contract with farmers.

Progress 10/01/05 to 09/30/07

Outputs
OUTPUTS: The investigator, or colleagues funded under additional grants related to this umbrella project, has presented preliminary results related to the project at meetings of agricultural and environmental economists. There are also press reports of a project involving experimental markets connecting residential homeowners to farmers who agree to manage hayfields to project grassland nesting birds, such as the article by Anderson (Save the Hay) in Audubon magazine for November-December 2007 for which project personnel were interviewed prior to the project ending date. PARTICIPANTS: Residents of Jamestown, RI (about 2500 homeowners). Professors S.K. Swallow, C.M. Anderson, E. Uchida. EcoAsset Markets Inc. partners R. Pace and P. Gengler. Farmers of the Jamestown Farm Viability Committee. Research Associate C. Trocki. TARGET AUDIENCES: This effort will produce academic knowledge about values for ecosystem services from farms and about methods to convert those values into potential revenues. Audiences include farmers, land trusts, and residents of ex-urban communities. Also included are wildlife managers and conservation professionals concerned with grassland nesting birds and ecosystem services. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: No major changes are applicable.

Impacts
This project works in conjunction with a USDA/NRCS grant to run an experimental market connecting grassland nesting bird habitat values from farms to residents of a nearby exurban community in Jamestown, RI. Project participants completed a survey of stated preferences for farm management intended to support grassland nesting birds in Jamestown, RI. The study uncovered results indicating that homeowners may be more willing to pay to help restore idled fields to productive hayfields, removing invasive plants, than to pay specifically for the range of bobolinks (a grassland nesting bird) that might be supported. Also, in a hypothetical (stated-preference) setting, the survey examined several alternative mechanisms by which real money payments could be solicited in running a test market for selling ecosystem services to residents of an exurban community. Willingness to pay differences were found under these different mechanisms (based on stated choices) but there appeared to be no statistically significant difference in the relative preference of different attributes of farm management for grassland nesting birds.

Publications

  • Uchida, Emi, C. Anderson, S. Swallow. 2007. Marketing ecosystem services from agricultural land: Stated Preferences over Payment Mechanisms and Actual Sales of Farm-Wildlife Contracts. Selected paper presented to American Agricultural Economics Association annual meeting, Portland, OR (available at http://agecon.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/pdf_view.pl?paperid=26465&ftype=.pd f)