Designing behaviourally informed policies for land stewardship: A new paradigm

Main Article Content

Don W Hine
R Crofts
John Becker

Abstract

This paper argues the case for a new approach to the stewardship of land resources that uses behavioural science theory to support the design and application of policies that facilitate changes in behaviour by those who develop policy and the farmers who implement it. Current approaches have: focused on legally-based expert system; and have been devised by national and international bureaucracies with little or no knowledge of how land owners and managers are motivated, and how they think, behave and operate as stewards of their natural resources. A review of current approaches from the social scientific literature is provided, with a particular focus on principles from social psychology. This is followed by an examination of how these principles can be applied to influence behaviour related to land restoration and soil conservation. Examples of the problems with traditional approaches and the evolution of new approaches with full engagement of farmers as the delivery agents are provided from within the European Union, Iceland and Scotland. In the light of these examples and emerging thinking in other parts of the world, the paper sets out the basis for a new approach based on behavioural science theory and application, reinforcing the arguments already made in the literature for a social license for farming.

Article Details

Section
Articles (PEER REVIEWED)
Author Biographies

Don W Hine, University of New England

Professor of Psychology, School of Behavioural, cognitive and Social Sciences

R Crofts

Independent Advisor on Environmental Management

John Becker, Pennsylvania State University

Professor Emeritus, College of Agricultural Science

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