Introduction

People often combine as a group to purchase goods that they find difficult to obtain as individuals. By combining effort, the group is able to reduce the transaction costs commonly associated with the purchase of ‘conservation’, such as the collection of funds, the collection of information, the design of protection mechanisms and the monitoring and enforcement of the protection mechanisms.

The organizational development of the conservation movement in America began in the latter part of the nineteenth century. At first, organizations were made up of small numbers of individuals, often from academic backgrounds. (For further reading of the development of the conservation movement in America, see Fox, 1981; Trefethen, 1975; Dunlap, 1988.) The conservation movement has since grown into a large collection of organizations, national and local, with vast memberships. It is estimated that the revenues of the dozen largest environmental groups in the USA currently amount to around $250 million per annum (Wall Street Journal, 1990). The success of each organization lies in the unique style with which it approaches conservation. Several of the larger conservation organizations have focussed on the direct private provision of wildlife habitat, while others have concentrated on lobbying government for increased public provision. This chapter looks at ways in which the former work with private landowners to encourage and enable habitat protection on private land.