Conservation Incentives
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a farming assistance program in the United States, provides many incentives to landowners to encourage them to install riparian buffers around water systems that have a high chance of non-point water pollution and are highly erodible. For example, the Nebraska system of Riparian Buffer Payments offers the following:
- Annual rental payments = $62 to $116 per acre/year (up to $96 per acre per year for certain marginal pasture land)
- Sign up bonus: up-front payment of $10 per acre/year for the life of the contract (Example: $150/ac for a fifteen-year contract)
- Payments for 90% of costs for trees, shrubs, grass seed, site preparation and planting
- 10 to 15 year contracts
- Eligible areas:
- Up to 180 feet (55 m) average width along each side of a continuous or intermittent stream
- Strips of grass, shrubs, and/or trees can be used
- Planting done by the local Natural Resource Districts (NRDs)
These incentives are offered to agriculturists to compensate them for their economic loss of taking this land out of production. If the land is highly erodible and produces little economic gain, it can sometimes be more economic to take advantage of these CRP programs.
Read more about this topic: Riparian Buffer
Famous quotes containing the words conservation and/or incentives:
“A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to right for the conservation of its interests.”
—Aristide Briand (1862–1932)
“Perestroika basically is creating material incentives for the individual. Some of the comrades deny that, but I can’t see it any other way. In that sense human nature kinda goes backwards. It’s a step backwards. You have to realize the people weren’t quite ready for a socialist production system.”
—Gus Hall (b. 1910)