A Spatial-Econometric Analysis of Attraction and Repulsion of Private Conservation by Public

Private land trusts protect much land in the U.S., but private groups may fail to coordinate conservation decisions with other conservation agents. Furthermore, it is difficult for public agencies to make optimal reserve-site selections without knowing how these public reserves might influence the configuration of private conservation. Because the configuration of conservation contributes to the total benefits land provides, we analyze spatial data on conservation in California, Illinois and Massachusetts to explore relationships between the locations of private and public conservation land. We find evidence that private protected acres are clustered together in space. In California, we find that private land conservation is attracted towards places where the government has reserves. In contrast, we find that government reserves in Illinois and Massachusetts act to shift private conservation away from the townships in which they are located in a mixture of spatial repulsion and simple acreage displacement