Partnerships between Organizations That Manage Protected Land in California Are Associated with Groups with Environmentally Oriented Missions
Using data on protected areas from California, this article explores the frequency and extent of partnering between managing land-protection organizations.
Abstract
Partnerships between organizations that engage in land protection are promoted as a way to improve the efficiency of limited conservation budgets. However, limited empirical exploration of the types of organizations involved in partnering and their organizational objectives precludes a holistic understanding of how to integrate partnering into planning for improved conservation outcomes. Using data on protected areas from California, United States, we explored the frequency and extent of partnering between managing organizations. In addition, we analyzed mission statements of partnering and non-partnering organizations to explore whether organizational objectives were related to observed partnering behavior. We estimated that partnerships managed about 7 million acres, comprising 8% of total protected land area, in California. Furthermore, the organizations that we observed partnering tended to use more environmental themed language in their mission statements, while non-partnering organizations tended to use language with socioeconomic themes. These results provide empirical evidence of partnering and support further exploration of it as a potentially important mechanism to improve conservation outcomes. In addition, they suggest that current partnering patterns and future opportunities to expand partnerships in protected land management likely depend on organizations pursuing wildlife and nature focused conservation objectives, and to a lesser extent socioeconomic objectives.
Authors
Emily Harding
Arizona State University
Hanna L. Breetz
Arizona State University
Kaitlyn L. Malakoff
Arizona State University
Heather Bird Jackson
Colorado State University
Paul R. Armsworth
University of Tennessee
Gwenllian D. Iacona
Arizona State University
