Conservation use valuation and land protection in Georgia

Incentives Affecting Land Use Decisions of Nonindustrial Private Forest Landowners

“…In 2000 there were 66 state property tax programs impacting forestland, every state had at least one program (Hibbard et al 2003). Forest specific property tax programs are well established in many states, Indiana 1899, whereas other states just recently created forest specific programs, Georgia 1991 (Newman et al 2000).…”

“…Georgia's Conservation Use Valuation program is a current use tax program that requires landowners to sign a ten year covenant with restricted uses in order to receive a reduced tax assessment (Newman et al 2000). Owners who violate their agreement owe twice the ad valorem tax amount plus interest, which may lead to relatively high compliance.…”

“…Owners who violate their agreement owe twice the ad valorem tax amount plus interest, which may lead to relatively high compliance. Newman et al note that in some locations, especially near Atlanta, owners have experienced a tax reduction of 90 per cent with the current use tax, which has led to a concentration of participation around urban or coastal areas (Newman et al 2000). These participation concentrations may reflect differences in landowner preferences in areas closer to cities or perhaps the magnitude of the reduction in property tax assessment.…”

“…Specifically, we are concerned about the disconnection between a landowner's participation and decisionmaking, as well as participants and program managers. We focus our review on programs in the US where there is mixed evidence regarding the impact of various programs on reforestation rates (Newman et al 2000;Zhang and Flick 2001). Furthermore, many of the programs evaluated were developed years or decades ago and may not match the contemporary motivations of landowners, especially given changing landowner attitudes (Erickson et al 2002;Kauneckis and Novac 2000).…”