Journal Article

Public access to spatial data on private-land conservation

Morris, Amy Wilson, Wardropper, Chloe B., Rissman, Adena R., Owley, Jessica, L'Roe, Andrew W.

2017

Overview

Information is critical for environmental governance. The rise of digital mapping has the potential to advance private-land conservation by assisting with conservation planning, monitoring, evaluation, and accountability. However, privacy concerns from private landowners and the capacity of conservation entities can influence efforts to track spatial data. We examine public access to geospatial data on conserved private lands and the reasons data are available or unavailable. We conduct a qualitative comparative case study based on analysis of maps, documents, and interviews. We compare four conservation programs involving different conservation tools: conservation easements (the growing but incomplete National Conservation Easement Database), regulatory mitigation (gaps in tracking U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s endangered species habitat mitigation), contract payments (lack of spatial data on U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program due to Farm Bill restrictions), and property-tax incentives (online mapping of Wisconsin’s managed forest tax program). These cases illuminate the capacity and privacy reasons for current incomplete or inaccessible spatial data and the politics of mapping private land. If geospatial data are to contribute fully to planning, evaluation, and accountability, we recommend improving information system capacity, enhancing learning networks, and reducing legal and administrative barriers to information access, while balancing the right to information and the right to privacy.

• Publisher: Resilience Alliance
• Subject: Access / Accountability / Agricultural conservation / Agriculture / Biodiversity conservation / Canopy gaps / Case studies / Comparative analysis / Comparative studies / Conservation / Conservation easements / Conservation programs / cost share / Data / Easements / Endangered / Endangered species / Environmental governance / Environmental policy / Fish / Forest management / Geographic Information Systems / Governance / Habitat conservation / Information / Insight / Land / Land conservation / land trusts / Landowners / Mapping / Mitigation / Natural resource management / Natural resources conservation / Nature conservation / Payments / Privacy / Private land / Private lands / Private property / private-land conservation / Property taxes / Protected areas / Public access / Public lands / Right of privacy / Spatial data / Sustainability / tax incentive / Tax incentives / Taxation / Tracking / transparency / Wildlife