Private Land Stewardship and Conservation: Partnerships for Collaborative Problem Solving
Sponsors: Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy (ISTPP) and the Institute for Renewable Natural Resources (IRNR)
This symposium was held April 2-4, 2000, at the Presidential Conference Center at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. The overall purpose of this symposium was to contribute to more efficient and productive decision making and more effective approaches for encouraging, rewarding, and assisting with private land stewardship and conservation. Half of the symposium participants represented private landowners and land managers, federal and state natural resource agencies, nongovernmental organizations, trade associations, businesses, and other related groups. The other half included Texas A&M University scholars from a diverse set of disciplines ranging from the humanities to the social and natural sciences. The four sessions focused on 1) Goals and Measures of successful private land stewardship and how they differ among interested parties, 2) Status and Trends of relevant current conservation issues, 3) governmental and nongovernmental Approaches designed to enhance stewardship of private lands, and 4) identification and discussion of Research and Development projects to pursue following the symposium. In the final session, participants selected the following research areas for further development: communication, fragmentation, incentive models, public policy, and valuation. The symposium was a key step in building a research and partnership agenda to address private land stewardship and conservation. The next step is already underway as teams of Texas A&M University scholars are further developing the five identified areas of research.
