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Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators: Wildlife Resources Conservation Jan Lewandrowski and Kevin Ingram No. (AH722) , April 2001 U.S. agriculture is well positioned to play a major role in protecting and enhancing the nation's wildlife. Wildlife in the U.S is dependent on the considerable land and water resources under the control of agriculture. At the same time, agriculture is one of the most competitive sectors in the U.S., and economic tradeoffs can make it difficult for farmers, on their own, to support wildlife conservation efforts requiring them to adopt more wildlife-friendly production techniques or directly allocate additional land and water resources to wildlife. Besides the opportunity costs associated with shifting resource use or changing production techniques, the public goods and common property nature of wildlife can also affect a farmers decision to protect wildlife found on their land. However, the experiences of USDA conservation programs demonstrate that farmers are willing to voluntarily shift additional land and water resources into habitat, provided they are compensated. Keywords: wildife, economics, conservation, agriculture, land retirement, cost-sharing, ERS, USDA In this series ... Reports are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Chapter 3.3: Wildlife Resources Conservation, 296 kb. Contents Introduction Tradeoffs Between Agricultural Production and Wildlife Habitat Asymmetric distribution of costs and benefits Ownership of land and water resources Potential losses of land management options Cost implications of biology Objectives of Wildlife Resource Conservation Policy Lessons From Past USDA Conservation Programs USDA's Policy Tools for Protecting Wildlife Habitat Associated with Agriculture Long-run land retirement Conservation compliance Cost sharing conservation practices Technical assistance and extension Encouraging conservation partnerships Compensation Safe-harbor, no surprises, and no take provisions References See other chapters in the Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators series. web administration: webadmin@ers.usda.gov page updated: October 7, 2003

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