To give a broader perspective,
an eighth of the world's protected nature reserves are privately owned (
http://www.economist.com/node/748602). This is
in spite of government interventions.
Which implies that the other 7/8 of the world's protected nature preserves are publicly owned. It sounds like the methods you advocate are about 1/7 as effective as government methods. I advocate both, to even larger degrees.
In fact, it's absolutely necessary. How often do you see urban and suburban areas becoming nature preserves vs natural areas becoming urban and suburban areas? As time passes, we end up with less and less natural areas. Once you learn about ecosystem services, this will scare you. See the long post I made to which I linked to earlier to understand better.
Also, please consider the ratio of the area of a nature preserve's land to its perimeter. This is a very important number. Again, read the long post I made to which I linked to earlier to understand it.
People don't need to be coerced into doing good things.
[/quote]
Not even worth replying to, given my above statements.