Landowner Conceptions of Stewardship

Understanding the decision-making process of farmers is a key to private lands conservation. Leopold's Land Ethic espoused the idea that land stewardship should be motivated by a moral obligation to the land (i.e., a value... [ view full abstract ]

Understanding the decision-making process of farmers is a key to private lands conservation. Leopold's Land Ethic espoused the idea that land stewardship should be motivated by a moral obligation to the land (i.e., a value orientation). The cognitive hierarchy examines relationships between general value orientations, and specific attitudes / norms to predict how cognitions influence behavior. This article examined value orientations (domination-mutualism) toward land, specific beliefs (rights-responsibilities) toward land ownership of Illinois farmers and relationships among these cognitive concepts. The goal was to empirically operationalize Leopold's Land Ethic. To measure cognitive concepts, we used a repeat mail survey of 3,000 Illinois agricultural producers stratified by enrollment in U. S. Department of Agriculture conservation programs (e.g. Conservation Reserve Program). Nine hundred and ten surveys were returned (response rate = 32%). Results highlighted the relationships among the concepts advanced in contemporary cognitive hierarchy logic and Leopold's Land Ethic. The general domination-mutualism constructs predicted specific rights and responsibility beliefs, which in turn predicted the Land Ethic. Farmers were more mutualism than domination oriented. Most respondents slightly agreed with the Land Ethic ideology, but viewed conservation as an individual, private, voluntary decision that the public should have little role in. Our research suggests potential conservation strategies that encourage socially responsible private land use emphasizing mutualism and responsibility.