Advancing Outreach Effectiveness to Improve Conservation Practice Adoption: a virtual series of morning coffee hour discussions to improve private-public partnerships
January 26, 2021 - January 28, 2021Agenda: Final Agenda_Stakeholder Engagement
Presentations:
Day 1
Prokopy_behavior change theory
Day 2
Day 3:
Runge Synthesis Session III v2
Breakout Group Discussion Notes:
Combined Notes:
Breakout 1:
Breakout 2:
Breakout 3:
Breakout 4:
Breakout 5:
Breakout 7:
Workshop Topic Summary
Despite improved technology regarding where agricultural best management practices (BMPs) can provide exceptional benefits to soil and watershed health, slow implementation rates continue to drag progress toward restoration targets. Outreach practitioners report that increasing adoption requires building trust with farmers; however, engagement strategies, incentive devices, and perceived barriers vary widely even within organizations. It is unclear whether slow adoption rates in high priority locations reflect a lack of feasibility given other stakeholder concerns, perceived risks associated with inadequate technical information, insufficient incentives to outweigh economic costs, public program complexities, ineffective communication strategies, or even limited knowledge and biases by outreach practitioners.