Journal article
An analysis of conservation practice adoption studies in agricultural human-natural systems
Journal of environmental management, Vol.236, pp.490-498
04/15/2019
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.02.009
PMID: 30771669
Abstract
Farmers' conservation decisions are central to addressing regional environmental challenges, such as biodiversity loss, water quality impairment, or climate change. However, three decades of substantial investment in agri-environmental programs has not yielded widespread adoption or improved environmental outcomes. It remains difficult to explain why farmers adopt despite an extensive body of research on the topic. One possible reason for this is that researchers are limiting the types of metrics they are analyzing to explain farmer decisions. We systematically and critically evaluated the social science adoption literature to address three important gaps: (1) How are adoption studies measuring adoption effectiveness? (2) How do studies integrate individual farmer perspectives into broader institutional (i.e., social and governance) contexts? (3) What are the most prevalent metrics that adoption research uses to characterize the human-natural system? We coded 174 studies and found that only 10% connect adoption decisions to conservation outcomes or undertake longitudinal research, while the dominant approach in adoption research excludes the institutional contexts in which farmers are situated. The most prevalent metrics focus on farmer demographics, financial and technical capacity to adopt, and economic motivations. The lack of attention to both conservation outcomes and longitudinal studies limits researchers' ability to analyze the effectiveness of CP adoption. To advance our understanding of adoption, we recommend that future research measure conservation outcomes and track how knowledge about adoption effectiveness feeds back into farmer perceptions and social norms towards adoption. Research should also consistently measure how agri-environmental programs mediate the social acceptability of adoption. Lastly, institutional metrics that can be widely incorporated into coupled human-natural systems research will advance synthesis efforts to better explain why farmers adoption conservation practices.
•Only 10% of studies measure the effectiveness of adopted conservation practices.•Few studies situate farmer decisions in their broader institutional context.•The diversity of metrics characterizing adoption limits synthesis opportunities.•Future research should measure outcomes to identify system feedbacks.•Future research should address individual and institutional dynamics jointly.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- An analysis of conservation practice adoption studies in agricultural human-natural systems
- Creators
- Landon Yoder - Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, USAAdam S Ward - Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, USAKajsa Dalrymple - University of Iowa, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, USAScott Spak - University of Iowa, School of Urban and Regional Planning, USARebecca Lave - Indiana University, Department of Geography, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of environmental management, Vol.236, pp.490-498
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ltd
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.02.009
- PMID
- 30771669
- ISSN
- 0301-4797
- eISSN
- 1095-8630
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000001, name: NSF, award: 1505309; DOI: 10.13039/100006733, name: Indiana University, award: 1331906; DOI: 10.13039/100000001, name: NSF
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/15/2019
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering; Public Policy Center (Archive); School of Journalism and Mass Communication; School of Planning and Public Affairs
- Record Identifier
- 9983993029702771
Metrics
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