Widely popular on agricultural lands, these programs and their association with landowner behavior have not been as thoroughly studied on forested lands.
In this paper, we developed an agent-based simulation model to demonstrate the evolution and impacts of social norms on the enrollment of agricultural land in a PES program.
Many countries have implemented conservation payment programs for agricultural land conversion to counter this trend.
However, riparian buffer implementation research has generally focused on agricultural land uses and participation in agricultural conservation programs.
For example, since 1987, the NRCS conservation reserve program alone has distributed $29.7 billion to owners of agricultural land to implement conservation practices that reduce soil loss, restore wetlands, and conserve forested areas (USDA 2006).
In the "Grain for Green" program in China, people were to be compensated for letting their agricultural land be planted in trees and subsequently moved from the jurisdiction of agriculture to forestry.
Based on the results of the extensive environmental monitoring program, federal health authorities concluded that PFC contamination of agricultural land occurred by the widespread use of soil conditioner, which had been mingled with industrial waste.
It seems, therefore, that public policies that artificially increase pressure on permanent agricultural land, e.g. through new land tenure policies, village relocation and/or merging programs, or the ceding of fallow land to investors for agricultural concessions (Chamberlain and Phomsombath 2002; Ducourtieux et al. 2005; Raintree 2003; Rigg 2005, 2006) should be carefully re-considered.
Since 2010, an operational DSA program has been underway in Tasmania, Australia, primarily for the assessment of agricultural land suitability for 20 different crops in newly commissioned irrigation schemes.
Federal, state, and local programs offer financial and technical assistance, particularly for larger private projects on agricultural land.
It remains to be seen whether and how cap-and-trade programs, carbon taxes, and other such regulations will address carbon emissions from agricultural land use and land use substitution.
