We examine the optimal length of a contract period in a conservation program with payments for ecosystem services aiming at protecting biodiversity on privately owned forests. The government chooses the number of stands and the length of contracts so as to maximize biodiversity benefits under a...

Temporal conservation contracts are used to protect biodiversity in privately owned lands worldwide. We examine how stand characteristics and habitat requirements of target species affect the contract length in a boreal forest context. We develop an integrated optimization model and apply the...

Conservation contracting has attained growing interest worldwide as a tool for protecting biodiversity in privately owned lands. In this policy, landowners receive payments from an environmental agency in exchange for land use practices that contribute to the supply of biodiversity. This...

We examine the relative merits of alternative forest biodiversity targets, which give different weights to species according to their conservation status and abundance. A site selection framework is used for choosing the habitat-protection strategy that maximizes biodiversity subject to an upper...