Eleventh International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

Managed land use, including the conservation of open space and natural areas, is a conscious human response to deforestation, environmental degradation, and climate change. Naturally, conservation efforts are most salient in the “urban fringes”: the transition zones where rural and urban land uses mix and clash. Whether or not landowners in these strategic zones “buy in” to conservation, therefore, is key. What attachments, beliefs, or social pressures push landowners to preserve the family farm or sell it to developers? Are they really free to make choices about the future of their land? To learn more, in 2018 I interviewed 50 private landowners in Stafford County, Virginia, one of the country’s fastest-growing counties located on the urban fringe of Washington DC. Raised on a Stafford farm, my IRB-approved, “participatory” research intimately explores a community’s response to rapid development, land use debates, and conservation appeals. I find landowners’ responses are strongly embedded in the fluid social realities of “Old” and “New” Stafford, community collapse and redefinition, and more. This research is important. Nationally, the use of conservation mechanisms (like easements that protect land from commercial and residential development) is rising, directly affecting our climate future. In addition, as scholars note, studying private landowners is hard; little research exists on the human and social factors – as opposed to the legal and scientific factors – that determine the efficacy of these mechanisms. My social research addresses this deficit, and should help official and non-profit actors craft optimal strategies for sustainable, voluntary conservation.