Each spring, Earth Day saves as an international reminder about the importance of environmental conservation, which includes preserving rural lands and promoting thoughtful growth.
Here in the UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department, assistant professor and extension economist Nathan Palardy has spent the last several years developing an integrated research and extension program focused on agricultural conservation easement programs, a policy mechanism designed to do just that.
“The primary goal is to protect agricultural land,” Palardy said. “But a secondary goal, can be to channel development into areas where it is most cost effective and directed away from areas where local communities want to preserve their agriculture.”
Through developing guidance materials to help landowner’s navigate the application process, speaking at land use workshops for county commissioners and the general public, and even working directly with county governments to create their own county level agricultural conservation easement programs,
What is an Agricultural Conservation Easement Program?
Simply put, agricultural conservation easements are voluntary, permanent agreements to sell or donate the development rights to a rural property. What this means is that when land is entered into an agricultural conservation easement program, the owners can continue using it for their agribusinesses, but the land will be protected from urban expansion.
“The landowner continues to own and manage the property; what they are selling is just the right to develop the land,” Palardy said.
In addition to the economic benefits of keeping working land in agriculture, the agricultural land is able to provide key ecosystem services for the area as well.
“Agricultural land also provides services that improve quality of life that would be difficult or expensive to replace,” Palardy said. “This includes flood mitigation, ground water recharge, and wildlife corridors.
Understanding Agricultural Conservation Easement Programs in Florida
With Florida’s agricultural heritage serving as a key part of its cultural identity, it may come as no surprise that Florida also has a robust variety of agricultural conservation easement programs available at the federal, state, and even county level.
“The largest agricultural conservation easement program in the state is the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program (RFLPP) which is run by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services,” Palardy said. “To date, this program protects over 230,000 acres of working agricultural land.”
For her undergraduate honors thesis, UF Food and Resource Economics undergraduate senior Kimberly Miranda-Ramos worked with Dr. Palardy to develop a better understanding of the makeup of rural lands encompassed in the RFLPP.
“The reason we kind of got into this is because there is a big research gap in the literature in terms of what types of land uses conservation easement programs protect across the United States,” Miranda-Ramos said.
Working together, the two were able to develop of the first research of its kind, identifying both the strengths of the Rural & Family Lands Protection Program as well as key opportunities for complementary conservation programs to be developed in the future.
Learn More in the Latest Episode of the FRE Lunch Podcast
In the latest episode of FRE Lunch: The Food and Resource Economics Podcast, our hosts sat down with Miranda-Ramos and Palardy to learn more about the types of programs available, the costs and benefits of enacting agricultural conservation easement programs, and the important role these programs can play as a policy tool for preserving the state’s agricultural heritage while encouraging thoughtful and directed growth.
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