A socio-economic-ecological simulation model of land acquisition to expanda national wildlife refuge

Land acquisition is a common practice for establishing and expanding protec ted areas such as wildlife refuges. However, the socioeconomic feasibility and ecological consequences of an acquisition project are rarely assessed b efore the project is executed. In this paper, a socio-economic-ecological m odel (SEELAND) was developed to simulate the socioeconomic feasibility and ecological consequences of a land acquisition project, using the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge in Michigan (USA) as a case study. The refuge is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) primarily for waterfowl . An adjacent area of 3035 ha has been proposed to add to the current refug e of 3680 ha. The vast majority of the proposed acquisition area is private ly owned. SEELAND consists of three main components: sociological (e.g. lan downers' attitudes toward selling their land), economic (e.g. fair market v alue and incentives), and ecological (e.g. land-cover types, soil types, pa rcel sizes and locations). Simulation results indicated that most of the hi gh-priority land was not available for purchase and the priority set by the USFWS could not be achieved. Many purchased land parcels were not connecte d to each other or to the existing refuge, resulting in small isolated patc hes, which are not good for habitat connectivity and refuge management. Fur thermore, landowners' attitudes towards selling their land significantly af fected the amounts and types of land purchased. Without using incentives, l ess than half of the proposed acquisition area would be purchasable within the next 20 years. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.