PUBLIC PREFERENCES FOR POLICIES THAT PROTECT PUBLIC BENEFITS AND SUPPORT PRIVATE FOREST LANDOWNERS

Forestlands provide critical ecosystem services (e.g., water quality protection) that enhance environmental quality and support growing populations. Forest lands also contribute to the economic viability of agriculture. In Florida alone, they contribute over $12bn/year in economic outputs and support over 90,000 jobs. These lands are increasingly under pressure from threats including land use change, climate variability, and invasive species. Addressing these problems is a major US policy goal; yet we know relatively little about the public's preferences for processes used to implement environmental policies/programs. My recent work (e.g., my dissertation research) revealed public preferences are in fact linked with program processes, which is important for designing environmental policies that reduce tradeoffs and enhance synergies between the agricultural economy and environmental benefits such clean water resources.The project has two phases used to assess the social acceptability and economic effectiveness of using payments for ecosystem services (PES) incentive programs to stem the loss of forestland, protect ecosystem services and increase financial sustainability of agricultural operations. In phase one I will use a generalized Faustmann model for loblolly pine stands to simulate the impacts of employing Best Management Practices (BMPs) for water resource protection on the net present value of forest outputs (e.g., timber) for eight representative sites in four heavily-forested southeastern states (FL, GA, SC, MS). Model results will identify tradeoffs in financial impacts and production of ecosystem services and timber. These results will inform phase two, the development of a stated preference valuation survey of the public in these states to identify levels of social support for alternative environmental programs given the tradeoffs in forest outputs and other important attributes: land protection method (e.g., permanent easements), institutional involvement (e.g., public), and cost. The valuation survey will employ a relatively novel stated preference valuation approach (best-worst choice) and econometric methods. Methodologically, this project is unique for its integration of forest stand-level modeling and stated preference valuation techniques.Results will fill critical knowledge gaps on public preferences for landowner incentive programs that can be used to inform economic tradeoffs associated with policies that sustain agricultural communities while protecting important ecosystem services. Importantly, the integrated project also includes the development of Extension products to inform key stakeholders about the tradeoffs inherent in alternative approaches to protecting forestland. The proposed project directly addresses the mission of AFRI and the four-part goal outlined by the National Research Council Committee: to satisfy the agricultural needs of humans, enhance environmental quality, sustain the economic viability of agriculture and enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole. Together with the mentoring and training dimensions of the project (see Project Narrative), the proposed project also meets the AFRI-ELI program goal of helping prepare the next generation of scientists because it will move my research in a direction that would set me apart in my field, give me skills to build an independent research program in forest economics and policy and preparethe Post-DoctoralAssociatefor a tenure-track university faculty position.