RESEARCH ARTICLE

ADOPTION OF A WILDLIFE CONSERVATION PLAN BY CROP AND LIVESTOCK FARMS IN CANADA: WHAT FARMER AND FARM CHARACTERISTICS MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of various farmer and farm characteristics on the adoption of a Wildlife Conservation Plan (WCP) – “a formal written document prepared by an expert that describes the measures to be taken by an agricultural operation to conserve natural land and wildlife habitants adjacent to it” - by crop and livestock farms in Canada. Those characteristics considered in the analysis include: human capital (age, sex), financial (profits, non-farm income, farm assets), farm structure (size, ownership), and social (degree of urbanization, population density).

It uses data collected in the Farm Environmental Management Survey (2001) conducted by Statistics Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The target population consists of 21,000 active farms in Canada with sales greater than $10,000. The farms responded to the survey (Nt = 16,053 with 76.4% response rate) were classified into three major categories: (1) “crop farms” (Nc = 5,425), (2) “livestock farms” (Nl = 2,250) and (3) “mixed farms” (Nm = 8,378) with both crops and livestock. The results indicate that rate of adoption of WCP is comparatively less (13.9%) as compared to others, including manure, fertilizer, pesticide, water, and grazing management plans. The results from a Logit Regression analyses suggest that age, profitability, farm size, and degree of urbanization affect significantly on this behaviour in all farm types, however with varied size and signs. It highlights the importance of taking into account of voluntarily private-action of the farming community to formulate public-regulation aiming an environmentally friendly and conservative agriculture farm setting.

Keywords: Crop and livestock farms, Environmental management systems (EMS), Wildlife conservation plan

How to Cite: JAYASINGHE,J.M.U.K, WEERSINK,A, (2006). ADOPTION OF A WILDLIFE CONSERVATION PLAN BY CROP AND LIVESTOCK FARMS IN CANADA: WHAT FARMER AND FARM CHARACTERISTICS MAKE A DIFFERENCE?.WILDLANKA, 1(1):Pages 067-076

Published On:2006-01-01

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