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Carrots and Sticks: New Brunswick and Maine Forest Landowner Perceptions Toward Incentives and Regulations

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Abstract

The governments of countries that allow private land ownership have two main tools to motivate landowner behavior: regulations and incentives. This research examines landowner preferences toward these policy tools and asks specifically: Do private forest landowners in New Brunswick and Maine believe that regulations and/or incentives are effective means to motivate responsible stewardship? Can landowners identify explicit regulations and policies that restrict property rights? Also, we were interested to see if any discernible differences existed between these adjacent jurisdictions from different countries, but that share similar forests and a similar settlement history. We identified and interviewed diverse landowners, recorded and transcribed our discussions, and analyzed the results using a grounded theory approach. Findings suggest that both New Brunswick and Maine participants are fairly comfortable with most regulations and many agreed that a combination of incentives and regulations are in fact useful. Furthermore, landowners in New Brunswick discussed non-monetary incentives as a mechanism to reward “good” stewardship; while Maine respondents articulated a degree of responsible stewardship that transcends a need to incentivize landowners. This study demonstrates that diverse landowners may be more comfortable with environmental regulations than previously understood and may be interested in non-monetary incentives.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by a grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of the federal government of Canada. We would also like to thank our generous research participants, Drs. Solange Nadeau and Don Floyd, and Tom Doak of the Small Woodlot Owners of Maine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Forest Resources, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

    Michael R. Quartuch

  2. Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada

    Thomas M. Beckley

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  1. Michael R. Quartuch
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  2. Thomas M. Beckley
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Correspondence to Thomas M. Beckley.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3 Description of New Brunswick participants
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Table 4 Description of Maine participants
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Quartuch, M.R., Beckley, T.M. Carrots and Sticks: New Brunswick and Maine Forest Landowner Perceptions Toward Incentives and Regulations. Environmental Management 53, 202–218 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-013-0200-z

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