Larson Eric R, Boyer Alison G, Armsworth Paul R
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996-1610.
Ecol Evol. 2014 Dec;4(23):4429-43. doi: 10.1002/ece3.1281. Epub 2014 Nov 3.
The effectiveness of conservation organizations is determined in part by how they adapt to changing conditions. Over the previous decade, economic conditions in the United States (US) showed marked variation including a period of rapid growth followed by a major recession. We examine how biodiversity conservation nonprofits in the US responded to these changes through their financial behaviors, focusing on a sample of 90 biodiversity conservation nonprofits and the largest individual organization (The Nature Conservancy; TNC). For the 90 sampled organizations, an analysis of financial ratios derived from tax return data revealed little response to economic conditions. Similarly, more detailed examination of conservation expenditures and land acquisition practices of TNC revealed only one significant relationship with economic conditions: TNC accepted a greater proportion of conservation easements as donated in more difficult economic conditions. Our results suggest that the financial behaviors of US biodiversity conservation nonprofits are unresponsive to economic conditions.
保护组织的有效性部分取决于它们如何适应不断变化的环境。在过去十年中，美国的经济状况呈现出显著变化，包括一段快速增长期，随后是一场严重衰退。我们研究了美国的生物多样性保护非营利组织如何通过其财务行为应对这些变化，重点关注90个生物多样性保护非营利组织的样本以及最大的单个组织（大自然保护协会；TNC）。对于90个抽样组织，对从纳税申报数据得出的财务比率进行的分析显示，它们对经济状况几乎没有反应。同样，对TNC的保护支出和土地收购做法进行的更详细审查仅揭示了与经济状况的一种显著关系：在经济状况更困难的情况下，TNC接受捐赠的保护地役权的比例更高。我们的结果表明，美国生物多样性保护非营利组织的财务行为对经济状况没有反应。
