Continued threats to global biodiversity have stimulated interest in the private purchase of land for conservation. Though not a new phenomenon, private land conservation appears to be on the rise, and its ambiguous position between philanthropy and financial investment leads to questions about the nature of landowner motives. Based on grounded theory analysis of interviews with the owners of privately conserved areas (PCAs), we find that individual landowners' involvement in private land conservation is driven, in part, by a desire for meaningful personal engagement in a project. This paper presents a model of PCA engagement in which landowners become personally invested in the management of the PCA and in the nature they protect. By looking at what landowners have in common across a variety of cultural and policy contexts, we show that landowners' engagement in PCAs as a meaningful project contributes to their well-being and, moreover, that PCAs can be conceptualized not merely as philanthropic endeavors, nor merely investments, but as meaningful projects in which their owners engage. Notably, fundamental psychological drives for autonomy, efficacy, and social connection facilitate the engagement process, regardless of whether conservation motivation is intrinsic or extrinsic. Our findings suggest that land conservation programs might consider i) allowing landowner autonomy to the maximum extent possible, ii) developing best practice standards against which landowners can assess their efficacy, and iii) facilitating the development of landowner networks. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

In recent years, private land conservation has increased in profile among policymakers and academics. Conservation initiatives on privately owned land help to mitigate global biodiversity loss and introduce new actors to conservation. However, they have also been the subject of numerous critical accounts. This review catalogs issues that emerge in critical literature, identifying 25 themes, classified into three groups: Implementation Effectiveness, Value Conflict, and Economic Inefficiency. Gaps in the literature include the need for broader geographic coverage; assessment of the issues’ specificity to private land conservation; and evaluation of the extent to which issues in the literature reflect broader societal values. The literature’s strong emphasis on value conflict suggests that greater attention to governance effectiveness may steer private land conservation toward practices that are more just, equitable, and representative and lead to increased societal support. We recommend further research to address identified gaps, with a greater orientation toward inclusive governance.

Highlights:• At the project level, rewilding is interpreted and implemented in a variety of ways• Rewilding projects are distinguished by place-based, adaptive, flexible approaches• Projects focus on avoiding failure; policy focuses on producing evidence of success • Transforming rewilding to best-practice policy risks loss of adaptive practices

Private land conservation is driven by a variety of influences. As a voluntary action undertaken by landowners, it is influenced not only by external factors such as financial incentives, but also by personal and psychological factors. Using William James’s concept of the “extended self”, this study investigates how protected land becomes a part of landowners’ identity. The study is based on narrative interviews with 27 landowners who had purchased or created a privately conserved area in one of 13 countries. The analysis highlights three facets of these nature reserves that enable incorporation into a landowner’s sense of self: place, possession and project. Drawing on Breakwell’s identity theory, Belk’s analysis of possessions, and Little’s project analytic theory, findings illustrate the various functions land serves in the expression and development of identity. The present research draws attention to aspects of land as possession and land as project, which have received little attention in conservation research. This study points to new directions for inquiry into the relationship between land, nature, identity and self and to practical applications for program design, including implications for knowledge sharing, toolkits, networks and communication.

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