Green Analytics completed a project focused on establishing a stronger understanding of agricultural producers' willingness to provide land for conservation easements in southern Saskatchewan. The object of the work was to discover the price producers would need to be paid for them to place a portion of their private land in a conservation easement. This was achieved through a survey-based valuation approach that explored agricultural producers' willingness to accept compensation, and how the required compensation might vary depending on the term (or length) of the conservation easement agreement.  

The Saskatchewan Stock Growers Foundation (SSGF) has been developing a term conservation easement program to protect native and naturalized grasslands on cattle ranch operations in the southwestern part of Saskatchewan. As part of this process, the SSGF sought to assess the average payment required by ranchers to implement a conservation easement on their ranch operations of varying term periods. The objectives of the project were to:  

• Estimate the average willingness to accept financial compensation of cattle ranchers for enrolling a portion of the native and naturalized grasslands on their ranches into a conservation easement; and  
• Assess whether these amounts differ significantly across conservation easement terms of different lengths (terms of 25, 35, 45, 55, and 65 years as well as perpetual).

A contingent valuation survey was developed and used to ask ranchers about their willingness to accept. The survey used a payment card format, which involved respondents selecting the minimum amount of one-time compensation per acre that they would accept for participating in the proposed conservation easement program.