How private landowners engage with wildlife and their habitat determines the success of texas parks andwildlife department (tpwd) in applying conservation tools to sustain wildlife habitat and…

The Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded a $423,239 Formula Grant under the Wildlife Restoration and Basic Hunter Education program (CFDA 15.611) to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). The funding aims to support a study that will survey landowners across Texas to understand the factors that influence their engagement and commitment to wildlife conservation initiatives. Specifically, the research will: (a) uncover the decision-making factors behind landowner conservation behaviors and collaboration, (b) diagnose the drivers of program enrollment and persistence, (c) determine the programmatic attributes with the greatest impact on landowner decisions, and (d) assess regional variations in conservation behavior and program participation. The project will also design and test a structural intervention to build TPWD's capacity for engaging landowners in collaborative conservation efforts. A portion of the grant funding will be provided as a sub-award to Texas State University to support the research activities.

How private landowners engage with wildlife and their habitat determines the success of texas parks andwildlife department (tpwd) in applying conservation tools to sustain wildlife habitat and populationsacross the state. As currently designed and implemented, the suite of tools in tpwds toolbox (e.g.,wildlife management plans, voluntary incentive programs vips , and conservation easements) may beinsufficient for generating the collaboration and commitment necessary to accomplish the agencyslandscape-scale conservation goals. This research aims to increase the effectiveness of tpwdsconservation tools in increasing commitment to collaboration for wildlife by uncovering and addressingthe key structural and decision-making determinants of transformative change. To do this, the proposedstudy will survey landowners across bird conservation regions (bcrs) in texas to a) uncover thedecision-making factors that precede conservation behavior and commitment to collaboration for wildlife, b) diagnose the drivers of conservation program enrollment and persistence, c) determine theprogrammatic attributes that have the biggest impact on landowner decision-making, and d) assessregional variation in the decision-making and structural determinants of conservation behavior, includingprogram enrollment and persistence. The proposed study will also design and test a structural interventionto build agency capacity in engaging landowners about collaborative conservation initiatives.