Fostering High‐Quality Engagement in Nature Recovery: Towards a De‐reification of Environmental Land Management

ABSTRACT Financial incentives go a long way in securing land manager participation in environmental programmes. They are nevertheless limited in their capacity to influence the quality of engagement with nature recovery actions. Drawing on responses from members of organisations active in nature conservation and restoration across four UK study sites—Devon and Cornwall, Peak District, East of England and the Scottish Highlands—we emphasise the importance of examining the conditions for high‐quality engagement in environmental programmes. We do so through a focus on land managers’ own relationships with the actions they take to recover nature, particularly the extent to which those actions are reified: treated as ends in themselves, rather than as means to the end (i.e., enhanced nature conservation and recovery). Using the concept of reification, we aim to show that the manner in which economic incentives are deployed in environmental programmes does not only influence participation but also the quality of land managers’ engagement in nature recovery. Reification therefore invites us to carefully consider how those incentives mediate the actions of land managers.