Buying forests for conservation: contours of a global trend

Acquisitions of private forest rights have become a widespread conservation instrument. Over the past two decades, voluntary transactions have legally protected millions of hectares of private forestland in several countries, notably in the Americas. Limited evidence exists on the overall global magnitude and distribution of acquisitions, the factors driving site selection, and resulting ecological and social impacts. Improved behavioral models of landowners and conservation organizations might help steer acquisitions towards more efficient and equitable outcomes. Opportunities for building such models now exist owing to rapid advances in data, methods, and computing capacity.