Farmers and nature conservation: What is known about attitudes, context factors and actions affecting conservation?

TLDR

Farmers’ attitudes toward conservation practices, shaped by tight finances and subsidy dependence, critically influence adoption decisions and the quality of agri‑environmental scheme outcomes. The study develops a model to illustrate how farmer attitudes, contextual factors, and agri‑environmental schemes interact to shape biodiversity outcomes, guiding specialists in designing future schemes. The authors present a conceptual model and accompanying insights for conservation biologists, policymakers, educators, and researchers to apply in farming contexts. This review reveals a wide range of perceptions about what conservation means and the economic and environmental impacts of adoption.

Abstract

Abstract Farmers' attitudes towards viability of specific conservation practices or actions strongly impact their decisions on adoption and change. This review of ‘attitude’ information reveals a wide range of perceptions about what conservation means and what the impacts of adoption will mean in economic and environmental terms. Farmers operate in a tight financial situation, and in parts of the world they are highly dependent on government subsidies, and cannot afford to risk losing that support. Use of conservation practices is most effective when these are understood in the context of the individual farm, and decisions are rooted in land and resource stewardship and long-term concerns about health of the farm and the soil. The attitudes of farmers entering agri-environmental schemes decide the quality of the result. A model is developed to show how attitudes of the farmer, the farming context and agri-environmental schemes interact and thus influence how the farming community affects nature and biodiversity. As new agri-environmental schemes are planned, agricultural development specialists need to recognize the complexity of farmer attitudes, the importance of location and individual farmer circumstances, and the multiple factors that influence decisions. We provide these insights and the model to conservation biologists conducting research in farming areas, decision makers who develop future agri-environmental schemes, educators training tomorrow's extension officers and nature conservationists, and researchers dealing with nature conservation issues through a combination of scientific disciplines.