Planning for a Sustainable Future: The Case of the North American Great Plains
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A Case Study of Sustainable Land Use: The Delivery of the NAWMP in Prairie Canada - Socioeconomic Impacts

Greg Riemer, Julia Taylor, and Derek Burden

Introduction

Program Objectives

Program Delivery

Socioeconomic Evaluation of the NAWMP Delivery

Evaluation Objectives

Results

Conclusions

Introduction

This chapter reviews the delivery and evaluations of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. It identifies the common themes in three provincial studies, as well as the major findings of each of the studies.

The NAWMP is an agreement among Canada, the United States, and Mexico to cooperate in restoring waterfowl populations to the levels of the 1970s to improve habitat for other wetland-dependent wildlife. It remains the largest conservation initiative in the world's history. Funding for the NAWMP comes from non-governmental agencies, state and U.S. federal governments, and provincial and Canadian federal governments.

The NAWMP encourages and helps North American wildlife conservation organizations focus investment on critical habitat areas for migratory birds. Through the NAWMP, key waterfowl habitat in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba compose the Prairie Habitat Joint Venture (PHJV), one of 12 habitat joint ventures in North America. The PHJV is the NAWMPís top priority because it provides breeding habitat for almost 40% of the continent's duck population, including 50% of mallards and more than 55% of pintails.

The NAWMP evolved from the need to address the rapid decline in continental waterfowl populations, in particular the duck population. The PHJV is the structure that coordinates the delivery of the NAWMP in the three Canadian prairie provinces. The NAWMP partners recognize that the decline in waterfowl is a symptom of poor land-use practices, the conversion of low land-use capability land to cultivation (highlighted by the destruction of wetlands), and soil degradation and erosion. Specifically, the NAWMP was designed to improve the prairie ecosystem to support a thriving waterfowl population. Historically, the three prairie provinces have been the breeding grounds for nearly half of the continental duck population. Much of the habitat needed to support higher duck populations has been destroyed, in part by agriculture driven by government policies, by the draining of wetlands, and by the destruction of breeding, migratory, and wintering habitat.

Program Objectives

The PHJV has several goals and objectives that it hopes will transcend NAWMP activities. They are as follows:

1. Changes to the landscape will provide a more favorable and stable lifestyle to residents of the prairies, and for visitors who will come in increasing numbers.
2. Increased use of marginal land for agriculture has caused loss of habitat and is leading to increased soil and water degradation by agriculture and to farming that is not (commercially and environmentally) sustainable without government subsidies.
3. Objectives for habitat and soil and water conservation are complementary - this seems to imply that both will make a contribution to sustaining the same enterprises, presumably farms.
4. The financial incentives to be offered by the Prairie Habitat Joint Venture will be sufficient to provide the land user with the necessary incentives to make desired changes - this is an implicit assumption.
5. The chosen financial incentives will be economically justifiable - this implies that they will involve expenditures only necessary to induce the changes and which are less than the social benefits that will be received.
6. There will be no continuing subsidies to maintain the land use changes brought about by the Venture.

(PHJV Prairie Habitat: A Prospectus, 1989)

Program Delivery

Within the NAWMP, the PHJV represents a partnership of provincial and national wildlife habitat conservation and land-use agencies. Principal among these are the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) of Environment Canada, Ducks Unlimited Canada, and the aforementioned provincial agencies. Through this partnership, an integrated land-use approach is taken in linking agricultural and wildlife interests to NAWMP programming in prairie Canada. The Saskatchewan Wetland Conservation Corporation (SWCC) was created to coordinate provincial activities on behalf of Saskatchewan NAWMP partners. In Alberta, the Alberta NAWMP Centre fulfills a similar function. The Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation provides overall coordination in Manitoba. The NAWMP, a continental partnership among Canada, the United States, and Mexico, seeks to restore waterfowl and other wetland-dependent wildlife through sound land-use programs that contribute to soil, water, and wildlife conservation.

To address these habitat losses, a landscape approach was adopted in which a broadly based impact on the agricultural landscape is achieved by working with landowners to modify agricultural practices. Land can be purchased outright at fair market price, leased, or set aside by means of conservation agreements. Landowners are offered financial incentives in exchange for modified farming practices that accommodate waterfowl and for returning suitable marginal land to conditions of improved nesting cover.

Ducks Unlimited Canada is the main delivery agent of PHJV programming in each province through its umbrella program "Prairie CARE." This group delivers a myriad of activities on the land to make agricultural activities "wildlife friendly." These include delayed hay cutting, inter-pothole seeding, establishment of dense nesting cover, enhancement of winter wheat production, nest basket programs, implementation of rotational grazing systems, underseeding of clover, direct seeding, and reduced tillage. In addition, agricultural support services, biological evaluation, communications and marketing, and financial and human resource management are delivered. Other programs contributing to the objectives of each provincial NAWMP include Large Marsh, Nest Baskets, Prairie Shores, and Waterfowl Crop Damage Prevention and Compensation. Delivery agencies and mechanisms vary between provinces with each program.

Underlying the importance of on-the-ground delivery, the NAWMP realized very early on that reaching the goals of the PHJV would not be possible without major changes to land use policies in western Canada that encouraged the annual cropping of marginal soils. On behalf of the PHJV, the SWCC coordinates land use policy reform initiatives. This coordination includes the synopsis of socioeconomic evaluations of the PHJV. In conjunction with the North American Wetland Conservation Council (Canada), the SWCC helped develop a discussion paper on the implications of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) on the PHJV and participated in a submission on the environmental assessment of crop insurance.

The PHJV assessed the costs associated with decoupling farm support payments on habitat conservation. Offering farm support payments on unimproved lands would help develop wildlife habitat and have little effect on existing farm support for cultivated acreage.

Socioeconomic Evaluation of the NAWMP Delivery

Each provincial coordinating agency conducted a socioeconomic evaluation of NAWMP delivery in its province. This evaluation of the NAWMP was a five-year review mandated by the NAWMP itself. Following that, the three provincial agencies and the CWS of Environment Canada combined the three separate evaluations. Their report presents a prairie-wide synopsis of three provincial socioeconomic evaluations, conducted in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. This chapter reviews the findings of the three socioeconomic evaluations, provides a prairie perspective of the NAWMP initiatives, and ascertains whether the program is attaining the economic and sociological goals and objectives of the PHJV.

Evaluation Objectives

Common objectives were laid out in advance and with mutual agreement. These were divided into an economic component and a sociological component for ease of analysis.

The economic component of these three studies deals primarily with the first and second objectives of the evaluation:

• To estimate the impact of the agricultural land treatment options offered by the NAWMP on the incomes of farmers participating in the program.
• To estimate the impact of NAWMP expenditures on local and/or regional economies in each province.

The sociological component deals primarily with the third and fourth objectives of the evaluation:

• To identify and quantify the attitudes and values of farmers toward the land treatment options offered by the NAWMP.
• To identify and quantify the attitudes and values of the general public toward the objectives and activities of the NAWMP.

Each province used different consultants and methodologies to address these objectives because program delivery and length of delivery varies by province. In general, combinations of accepted economic analysis and survey data were used.

Results

Several economic themes are common to NAWMP delivery across the prairie provinces:

1. The compensation offered in exchange for participation in NAWMP land treatment options is generally adequate throughout the prairie provinces. There is also a strong indication that persons participating in NAWMP land treatment options are aware of future benefits resulting from the farming practices promoted by NAWMP.
2. NAWMP activities have an impact on the economies of local communities through two possible sources. The first source is direct NAWMP activities and changes in land use; the second source is tourism. In the case of both sources, the report found that the impact of NAWMP activities on the economies of local communities ranged from stabilizing to revitalizing.

Across the prairie provinces, the following common sociological themes were found:

1. The attitudes and values of farmers surveyed in the three prairie provinces toward the preservation of waterfowl habitat and nongame species habitat and the conservation of agricultural resources are significantly positive. Although they support programs promoting these activities, farmers maintain an average to low level of awareness of NAWMP.
2. The attitudes and values of the general public in the three prairie provinces about the preservation of waterfowl habitat and nongame species habitat and the conservation of agricultural resources are also positive. Like the farmers surveyed, the general public has positive attitudes toward environmental issues related to the NAWMP and an average to low level of awareness of NAWMP.
3. Farmers and the general public agree on issues of environmental concern. This seems to be especially true since people on the prairies indicated that they have placed a value on simply knowing wildlife exists (existence value) and, in some cases, have placed a value on the chance that they may wish to enjoy it in the future (option value). The presence of an existence value or an option value is a strong indication that people may also place a value on the preservation of wildlife for future generations to enjoy (bequest value).
4. Both farmers and the general public agree that the fundamental role of government should be to provide public funding for these types of programs, and the governments' cost-sharing relationship with the other funding agencies should be maintained.
5. It is perceived that, in the past, compensation for waterfowl damage has been poorly delivered. Farmers tend to relate increasing waterfowl populations with increasing crop damage. Their lack of awareness of the new level of crop damage compensation could explain any tendency to maintain the idea that compensation is not adequate. Distribution of information pertaining to the effectiveness of lure crops and feeding stations may influence the perception of compensation adequacy. Although the concern of waterfowl damage is low in most cases, a problem may arise if people associate an increase in crop damage with an increase in NAWMP activities and hence an increase in waterfowl population.

Conclusions

This review of the socioeconomic evaluations of the Prairie Habitat Joint Venture indicates that the goals and objectives set out in 1989 in PHJV Prairie Habitat: A Prospectus are being met. This synopsis has found that farmers are generally being adequately compensated for participation in the program; rural communities benefit from NAWMP activities; people are aware of environmental concerns surrounding the NAWMP; and people strongly support the continuation of these types of programs, both morally and financially.

About the Authors

Greg Riemer is manager of Agricultural Programs at the Saskatchewan Wetland Conservation Corporation (SWCC) and agricultural policy coordinator for the Prairie Habitat Joint Venture of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. Among his other duties for SWCC are socioeconomic evaluation and Crown Land acquisition and management. Before coming to SWCC, he was assistant manager of the Agriculture Development Fund (ADF), Saskatchewan Agriculture; and a research agronomist working in areas such as commercial crop research, farm management, environmental portfolios, and increased silage yields.

Julia Taylor received a B.Sc. Honors in mathematical statistics from the University of Alberta and an M.Sc. in agricultural economics in 1988 from the University of Saskatchewan, where she is a professional research associate.

Derek Burden received a B.S.A. and an M.Sc. in agricultural economics from the University of Saskatchewan. He holds a position in the Agricultural Credit Division of the Bank of Nova Scotia in Saskatoon, Canada.