Biodiversity conservation incentive programs for privately owned forests

In many countries, a large proportion of forest biodiversity exists on private land. Legal restrictions are often inadequate to prevent loss of habitat and encourage forest owners to manage areas for biodiversity, especially when these management actions require time, money, and other resources. Environmental programs encouraging these actions through economic incentives can be used instead of additional legal restrictions, although to be efficient and successful, an incentive program must be thoughtfully developed and its conservation goals must be clear. In addition to being economically efficient, programs must be acceptable to landowners and ecologically appropriate, especially with respect to the case-specific objectives and the ecosystems in question. We introduce a sample of voluntary incentive programs for private forests in Europe and North America. We briefly describe the economic, social, and ecological characteristics of the programs and the forests they aim to conserve, and evaluate the success of these programs with respect to their explicitly stated goals and the ecological status of the forests in that country or state. Important factors contributing to program success include an allowance for some economic productivity in enrolled forests, a long period since time of program inception, and little interference from other incentive programs.