This is particularly important given that seventy percent of U.S. land outside of Alaska is privately owned. Even more significantly, more than fifty percent of species listed under the Endangered Species Act are found only on private lands, and many more have substantial parts of their remaining range on private property. In many cases, reforms to benefit biodiversity will require the revision of existing incentives offered to the private sector by government policies. In many cases, economic policies send signals which conflict with the goal of species conservation. If biodiversity considerations are linked to the economic incentive, the signal sent to the private sector is harmonized rather than conflicting.
Private landowners benefit from public assistance in many ways.
These benefits include subsidized access to vital resources like water and roadways, price supports, and tax breaks, all of which increase the value of property. Public support could be conditioned upon requiring recipients to comply with existing laws and to implement management practices that embody sound principles of land stewardship. In order to fully integrate economic and environmental policy, we must also examine the biodiversity impact of government subsidies. Government subsidies often stimulate or encourage activities that damage biodiversity. Tax breaks for extractive industries are a prime example of this problem.