Effects of the AB on the final proportion q and aggregation γ of conserved land parcels in the steady state, averaged over 100 replicates with different random cost landscapes. The proportion q (panel a) and aggregation γ (panel b) are shown as functions of the bonus level b if initially all land parcels are in economic use (solid and dashed blue lines; identical to the corresponding solid and dashed blue lines in Fig. 2a). In panel a, for an initial bonus of b₁ = 0.7σ a subsequent reduction to b₂ = 0.45σ leads to q^↓(b₂) = 0.58 and γ^↓(b₂) = 0.82 in the steady state (red solid and dashed lines), while this bonus would have led to only q^↑(b₂) = 0.04 and γ^↑(b₂) = 0.17 if applied without the initial high payment b₁. The red lines are always above the blue lines, representing hysteresis. The base payment is p = 1−2σ, that is, two standard deviations below the mean cost. The bonus values on the horizontal axes are in units of the cost variation σ. The green double arrows indicate the hysteresis induced by the staggered payment scheme.