| Summary: | Since Texas contains less than 5% public land, private landowners are critical to
the success of environmental management initiatives in the state. This has implications
for resources that traverse property boundaries, such as wildlife and groundwater. Texas
landowners are increasingly capitalizing on the income potential of fee-based hunting,
and many have banded together to form Wildlife Management Associations (WMAs).
Not only can such landowner associations enhance the coordination of resource
management decisions, they also have the potential to increase social capital, which is
reflected by interpersonal trust, reciprocity and civic participation. To improve the
management of common-pool resources it is important to understand the relationship
between social capital and coordinated resource management because long-term
community stability and resource sustainability appear to be highly correlated.
A 600-landowner mail survey (with 48.1% response) was conducted in the
Edwards Plateau region of Texas to compare the land management characteristics and
social capital of landowners who are members of WMAs with non-member landowners.
The goal of this research was to determine how WMA membership, property size, and
location affect levels of social capital and interest in cooperative resource management. It was hypothesized that members, large landowners, and northern landowners would be
more interested in cooperative management and exhibit higher social capital.
While WMA members and large-property owners were more involved in wildlife
management than non-members and small-property owners, this interest in resource
management did not carry over to groundwater. These groups were not more involved
in groundwater management activities, and all survey groups were disinterested in
joining private cooperatives for groundwater marketing.
Social capital differences were more evident between large- and small-property
owners than between WMA members and non-members. Members scored higher only
on community involvement, while large owners scored higher on community
involvement as well as trust. These results suggest that WMA membership per se does
not significantly increase social capital among Edwards Plateau landowners, but do not
necessarily refute the importance of social capital within WMAs. Differences in trust
between members were positively correlated with increased communication and meeting
frequency, suggesting ways WMAs can improve intra-association social capital.
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