A third of Canadians willing to open their wallets for wetland conservation

About one-third of Canadians are willing to make a one-time donation to support bird habitat conservation, according to a recent study published in FACETS. The researchers also highlighted factors that made people more willing to donate, offering insights for organizations looking to boost fundraising.

“This is part of an effort to really create a baseline level of information about what Canadians think and feel about wetlands, how they use wetlands, how they value them, what they think the threats are to these habitats and the extent to which they’re prepared to support them financially,” says Katherine Sainsbury, a postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation and first author of the study.

Researchers surveyed 2,324 Canadians to gauge whether they’d be willing to donate to the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP), and if so, what amount they’d give.

“You’re asking people about a hypothetical scenario, so that allows policymakers to test out what people think or how they might value a situation that’s yet to have transpired,” says Sainsbury.

They found that about a third of survey participants were willing to make a one-time donation, with the average amount being $33.

“Using that data, we’re then able to estimate overall willingness to donate and average donation levels,” says Sainsbury.

NAWMP was chosen as the hypothetical recipient of funds because it’s an international agreement that involves Canada, the United States and Mexico, with several partner organizations across the continent, explains Sainsbury. The survey was designed with input from many of these conservation organizations, such as Ducks Unlimited and the Canadian Wildlife Service, to provide insights that might help them with their public engagement strategies and fundraising efforts.

“A lot of the people who work on conservation are biologists or ecologists. They know an awful lot about animals, but there isn’t so much time invested in figuring people out,” Sainsbury says. “This research really was rooted in what would be practically useful for those organizations.”

Researchers found a strong correlation between participation in birdwatching or plant gathering and willingness to donate. They also found that people who engaged in outdoor recreational activities were more likely to donate. Participants also expressed a strong preference for conservation initiatives involving public land, as opposed to privately owned land.

“One of the big things they want partner organizations to do is buy conservation lands,” says Sainsbury. “It’s useful to know and understand what resonates with people.”

The study also highlighted the importance of providing different ways to donate. Of the survey participants, 26.8% preferred making a direct payment to a non-governmental conservation organization, 24.7% wanted the ability to make a donation when filing taxes and 19.3% liked the idea of buying a collectible wildlife habitat conservation item such as a stamp. Sainsbury says providing the option to donate at a point-of-sale system in a retail store, for example, could also be an effective approach.

Next, researchers plan to survey waterfowl hunters, who are required to pay license fees that go to NAWMP, to better understand their thoughts on conservation.

“NAWMP has been very successful over the years in conserving waterfowl and wetland habitats,” says Sainsbury. “Hopefully what this study can do is support partner organizations in thinking about how they can broaden the scope of support they receive.”