Changing Land Management: Adoption of New Practices by Rural Landholders

There is a rich and extensive history of research into factors that encourage farmers to change their land management practices, or inhibit them from doing so. Yet this research is often under-utilized in practice. Changing Land Management provides key insights from past and cutting-edge research to support decision-makers as they attempt to assist rural communities adapting to changed circumstances, such as new technologies, new environmental imperatives, new market opportunities or changed climate.

Common themes are the need for an appreciation of the diversity of land managers and their contexts, of the diversity of factors that influence land management decisions, and of the challenges that face government programs that are intended to change land management.

David Pannell is Professor in Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Western Australia, Director of the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy, and a Federation Fellow of the Australian Research Council. David’s research has won awards in the USA, Australia, Canada and the UK.

Frank Vanclay is Professor of Rural Sociology with the Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research at the University of Tasmania. He was the 2000–2004 President of the International Rural Sociology Association, and has been an invited keynote speaker on rural social issues and social impact assessment at conferences and workshops all over the world.