People, place, behavior, and context: A research agenda for expanding our understanding of what motivates farmers' conservation behaviors

Excerpt

Social scientists have explored why farmers engage in conservation activities for a number of decades, yet there is still a large degree of unexplained variation and a lack of understanding about the factors that contribute to, or inhibit, farmer conservation. Our goal with this article is to outline an agenda for future social science research exploring conservation behaviors in agricultural systems. We believe that greater reflection on what avenues need further exploration will lead to improved scientific understanding and ultimately greater uptake in conservation by farmers.

Environmentally relevant farmer behaviors, often conceptualized as best management practices (BMPs) or conservation practices, are complex and context specific, making the adoption or use of these practices difficult to measure or predict. Additionally, farmers are a highly diverse group with differing resource endowments and exposures to risk; production needs, tenure arrangements, and ownership goals; environmental motives; personalities; proclivities for engaging in government conservation programs; and social networks. Subsequently, as indicated by earlier reviews of this literature, there are few variables that consistently explain adoption decisions. In addition to high variability in determinants of behavior, physical and temporal variation in the characteristics of the practices themselves complicate research efforts.

Farm and farmer-level factors are not…