Complex property rights and Coasean bargaining in natural resource management

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to the debate on whether private or common property rights are better for advancing the sustainable management of natural resources. This contest between public and private ownership is often exaggerated, we claim, because in the real world, complex entitlements with varying degrees of privateness/publicness prevail. Property rights belonging to families, companies, clubs, corporations, and communities are simultaneously common to the members/shareholders and private to the entities. We call these entitlements private-common entitlements. When we acknowledge this complexity, it becomes evident that neither private nor common ownership rights are alone responsible for resource depletion. Instead, depletion is caused by freeriding or evading the payment of the full price of natural resources. This invites Coase’s solution to resource allocation. Therefore, the key problem is whether and how Coasean bargaining is employed to allocate ownership over resources threatened by depletion. We contribute to the debate by showing that Coase’s approach promotes not only economically efficient but also ecologically sustainable resource management. Often, this approach would lead to the establishment of largely private property or control rights by largely collective/public entities. We apply this theoretical framework to the development of a ski resort in Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria.     

Managing a Subsidized Predator Population: Reducing Common Raven Predation on Desert Tortoises

Human communities often are an inadvertent source of food, water, and other resources to native species of wildlife. Because these resources are more stable and predictable than those in a natural environment, animals that subsist on them are able to increase in numbers and expand their range, much to the detriment of their competitors and species they prey upon. In the Mojave Desert, common ravens (Corvus corax) have benefited from human-provided resources to increase in population size precipitously in recent years. This trend has caused concern because ravens prey on juvenile desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii), a federally threatened species. In this paper, I discuss management strategies to reduce raven predation on desert tortoises. The recommendations fall into three categories: (1) managing raven populations by reducing access to anthropogenic resources; (2) removing offending ravens or other birds in specially targeted tortoise management zones; and (3) continuing research on raven ecology, raven behavior, and methods of reducing raven predation on tortoises. I also recommend approaching the problem within an adaptive management framework: management efforts should first be employed as scientific experiments—with replicates and controls—to yield an unbiased assessment of their effectiveness. Furthermore, these strategies should be implemented in concert with actions that reduce other causes of desert tortoise mortality to aid the long-term recovery of their populations. Overall, the approaches outlined in this paper are widely applicable to the management of subsidized predators, particularly where they present a threat to a declining species of prey.     

Private land management for biodiversity conservation

As human influences fragment native communities and ecosystems, remaining land must be better managed to conserve many elements of biodiversity. Much of this land is privately held, yet traditional private land-use management practices often further diminish biodiversity by promoting favored or edge-adapted species. Today, private land stewards are increasingly aware of and concerned about biodiversity, but little guidance exists for them to make land-use decisions incorporating principles and knowledge from conservation biology. Consequently, most management strategies are highly subjective. This article addresses that problem by introducing current conservation wisdom to management and use of private lands. The result is a model program for developing land management plans, with the goal of maintaining viable populations and natural distributions of native species and communities from a landscape perspective. The program establishes a protocol for classifying sites according to the importance of their species, communities, and other elements to global and regional biodiversity. These site classifications are based on the management objectives necessary to maintain important elements. Once managers classify a site, the program provides management standards, general stewardship principles, examples of land management strategies, and basic monitoring and evaluation procedures.     

论水工程设施收集的水资源的所有权归属

雨水收集设施等水工程日益得到应用,需要解决雨水收集设施等水工程设施收集的水资源的所有权。因大气降水是一种自由资源,不属于《宪法》中的"水流"或《水法》中的"水资源"的范畴,雨水收集设施等水工程设施收集的水资源所有权不能适用《宪法》、《水法》的规定,而是取决于雨水收集设施等水工程设施的所有权。雨水收集设施等水工程设施不是土地的组成部分,所有权包括国家所有、集体所有、其他组织和个人所有等形式,因此,雨水收集设施等水工程设施收集的水资源所有权自然包括国家所有、集体所有、其他组织和个人所有。但水工程设施不是公益性、大中型的水利设施,允许其他投资主体投资,其所有权应以集体、个人所有为主要形式     

Transaction costs and community-based natural resource management in Nepal

Transaction costs in community-based resource management are incurred by households attempting to enforce property right rules over common resources similar to those inherent in private property rights. Despite their importance, transaction costs of community-based management of common pool resources (CPRs) are often not incorporated into the economic analysis of participatory resource management. This paper examines the transaction costs incurred by forest users in community forestry (CF) based on a survey of 309 households belonging to eight different forest user groups (FUGs) in the mid hills of Nepal. The analysis reveals that the average 'poor' household incurred Nepalese rupees (NRS) 1265 in transaction costs annually, while wealthier 'rich' households incurred an average of NRS 2312 per year. Although richer households bear higher proportions of such costs, transaction costs for CF management as a percentage of resource appropriation costs are higher for poorer households (26%) than those of middle-wealth (24%) or rich households (14%). There are also village differences in the level of transaction costs. The results show that transaction costs are a major component of resource management costs and vary according to socio-economic status of resource users and characteristics of the community.     

Public–Private Partnerships for Solid Waste Management Services

The increasing cost of municipal solid waste (MSW) management has led local governments in numerous countries to examine if this service is best provided by the public sector or can better be provided by the private sector. Public–private partnerships have emerged as a promising alternative to improve MSW management performance with privately owned enterprises often outperforming publicly owned ones. In Lebanon, several municipalities are transforming waste management services from a public service publicly provided into a public service privately contracted. In this context, a regulated private market for MSW management services is essential. The present study examines a recent experience of the private sector participation in MSW management in the Greater Beirut Area. The results of a field survey concerning public perception of solid waste management are presented. Analysis of alternatives for private sector involvement in waste management is considered and management approaches are outlined.     

CONJUNCTIVE MANAGEMENT OF WATER RESOURCES IN THE CONTEXT OF TEXAS WATER LAW1

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the critical interaction between existing Texas water law and the state's water resources. Conjunctive use and management of interrelated water resources, though seldom practiced, is generally considered desirable. However, a significant barrier to the coordinated, efficient use and management of water resources is the legal division of water in the various phases of the hydrologic cycle into different classes and recognition of well-defined water rights in the separate phases. Several examples of the problems which relate to, or result from, present Texas water law and which prevent correlated water resource management are discussed. Any substantive revision of Texas law, particularly ground water law, will apparently be difficult to achieve in the immediate future, primarily because of the large number of recognized private water rights and the political power inherent in them. Data necessary for operation of conjunctive management systems are gradually being acquired, and perhaps someday other hydrologic phases can be integrated with surface and ground water. Nevertheless, Texas courts and the legislature have sufficient information on the interrelated hydrologic cycle so that prospective water conflicts should be anticipated and avoided. Great care must be exercised in the recognition of new types of private water rights or extension of existing rights, because this institutional structure, once established, presents a formidable obstacle to desirable revisions of the law.     

Administration of water resources

While water has always been important to people, recent pressures of population, ecology, geography and economic development have created new demands for water and call into question the old institutional arrangements for the administration of water resources. Drawing upon experience, largely from Spain and Latin America but including some examples from Europe, this paper examines the role that private enterprise and water cooperatives could play in promoting more efficient water use. The paper concludes that private management techniques under public control may prove useful but are no panacea.     

Environmental and Strategic Uncertainty in Common Property Management: The Case of Scottish Red Deer

The range of red deer populations in the Scottish Highlands can cover several different landholdings (estates), many of which derive their income primarily from the private hunting (stalking) of stags. The deer belong to nobody and their seasonal movement does not respect the boundaries of individual estates, but a 'rule of capture' does apply as, once shot, the deer become the property of the estate owner. This paper argues that deer populations would best be managed as a common property resource. Indeed, for this reason, the Deer Commission for Scotland has encouraged owners to form Deer Management Groups. These groups are now able to utilize a computer program that models the relationship between grazing quality and population dynamics. However, drawing upon examples from the Western Highlands, the paper finds that common property management must overcome incentives to behave strategically that arise from the characteristics of flow and storage of the resource. The problem is aggravated by the degradation of the habitat that has occurred over centuries. This often means that the resource is below its optimum in terms of stag numbers and quality. Scientific models are an important contribution, but only reduce the environmental uncertainty. Their full potential can only be realized if all landowners are obliged to actively engage in common property management.     

Public-private partnerships for solid waste management services

The increasing cost of municipal solid waste (MSW) management has led local governments in numerous countries to examine if this service is best provided by the public sector or can better be provided by the private sector. Public-private partnerships have emerged as a promising alternative to improve MSW management performance with privately owned enterprises often outperforming publicly owned ones. In Lebanon, several municipalities are transforming waste management services from a public service publicly provided into a public service privately contracted. In this context, a regulated private market for MSW management services is essential. The present study examines a recent experience of the private sector participation in MSW management in the Greater Beirut Area. The results of a field survey concerning public perception of solid waste management are presented. Analysis of alternatives for private sector involvement in waste management is considered and management approaches are outlined.     

Community Responses to Government Defunding of Watershed Projects: A Comparative Study in India and the USA

When central governments decentralize natural resource management (NRM), they often retain an interest in the local efforts and provide funding for them. Such outside investments can serve an important role in moving community-based efforts forward. At the same time, they can represent risks to the community if government resources are not stable over time. Our focus in this article is on the effects of withdrawal of government resources from community-based NRM. A critical question is how to build institutional capacity to carry on when the government funding runs out. This study compares institutional survival and coping strategies used by community-based project organizations in two different contexts, India and the United States. Despite higher links to livelihoods, community participation, and private benefits, efforts in the Indian cases exhibited lower survival rates than did those in the U.S. cases. Successful coping strategies in the U.S. context often involved tapping into existing institutions and resources. In the Indian context, successful coping strategies often involved building broad community support for the projects and creatively finding additional funding sources. On the other hand, the lack of local community interest, due to the top-down development approach and sometimes narrow benefit distribution, often challenged organizational survival and project maintenance.     

Exploring red deer culling strategies using a population-specific calibrated management model

Wildlife management is generally carried out under conditions of uncertainty. The exact population size is unknown, its future dynamics are uncertain and clear management objectives are often not formulated. In order to provide management advice in this situation, a framework is presented for combining different sources of information using a Bayesian approach for calibrating a management model. Harvesting strategies can then be explored based on predictions of future populations size and structure which incorporate parameter uncertainty. This method makes it possible to evaluate the probability of achieving certain objectives with different management strategies. The advantage of the approach presented in this paper lies in that both the model and the harvesting strategies are adaptable to any particular population of interest. The approach is illustrated for two Scottish red deer populations for which culling strategies corresponding to different management objectives are explored and their benefits evaluated. It is found that each population requires different culling rates for keeping population number stable, demonstrating the benefits of the population specific calibration of the management model.     

Closing the Incentive Gap: The Role of Public and Private Actors in Governing Indonesia's Tuna Fisheries

Indonesia is one of the world's largest tuna producing countries, yet regulatory oversight remains weak and management is poor. Incentive-based approaches are a way to improve state-based resource management, but they often require strong government regulation. In this paper, we use principal–agent theory and the notion of the ‘incentive gap’ to explore how incentives could be brought to bear in Indonesia through a combination of private and public actors. With a shared fish stock like tuna, we argue that a double principal–agent problem emerges, where information, asymmetries between various players complicate management. We focus on the problems of adverse selection and moral hazard in three different tuna fisheries in Indonesia to identify the nature of the incentive gap, and comment on the mix of public and private actors currently engaged in tuna fishery governance towards reducing the gap. The double principal–agent problem is a useful yet underutilized framework to understand the dynamics of shared stocks management. In this first application to a developing country fishery, we conclude that information asymmetries cannot be overcome without the involvement of private actors, who are increasingly becoming important in aligning regional and global objectives with those of fishers themselves.     

Managing Forests for Increased Regional Water Yield in the Southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain

With growing populations fueling increased groundwater abstraction and forecasts of greater water scarcity in the southeastern United States, identifying land management strategies that enhance water availability will be vital to maintaining hydrologic resources and protecting natural systems. Management of forested uplands for lower basal area, currently a priority for habitat improvement on public lands, may also increase water yield through decreased evapotranspiration (ET). To explore this hypothesis, we synthesized studies of precipitation and ET in coastal plain pine stands to develop a statistical model of water yield as a function of management strategy, stand structure, and ecosystem water use. This model allowed us to estimate changes in water yield in response to varying management strategies across spatial scales from the individual stand to a regional watershed. Results suggest that slash pine stands managed at lower basal areas can have up to 64% more cumulative water yield over a 25‐year rotation compared to systems managed for high‐density timber production, with the greatest increases in stands also managed for recurrent understory fire. Although there are important uncertainties in the magnitude of additional water yield and its final destination (i.e., surface water bodies vs. groundwater), this analysis highlights the potential for management activities on public and private timber lands to partially offset increasing demand on surface and groundwater resources.     

ADAPTING THE LAW OF WATER MANAGEMENT TO GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AND OTHER HYDROPOLITICAL STRESSES1

ABSTRACT: Existing legal regimes for the management of water resources are already stressed by changing technologies and growing populations. There is little reason for doubt that today the planet is undergoing significant and even alarming climate change. In the past such global climatic changes had dramatic effects on water resource availability with disastrous consequences for many human communities. Today's climate changes can be managed without such disastrous consequences for present day communities only if there are major reforms to existing water law regimes at the local, national, and international levels. In particular, at the local and national levels, water resources must be treated as public property rather than as common or private property. At the international level, water must be managed at the drainage basin level rather than according to national boundaries that largely ignore rational water management criteria. At all levels, care must be given to decentralizing decision making and to use economic incentives insofar as possible, without, however, mistaking economic incentives for markets. The public nature of water resources precludes true markets as a significant management tool.     

The miombo woodlands at the cross roads: Potential threats, sustainable livelihoods, policy gaps and challenges

The Miombo, the most extensive tropical woodland formation of Africa directly supports the livelihoods of over 100 million people through the provision of many tree products and ecosystem services essential to both the rural and urban communities. While the destruction of the Miombo has often been blamed on the rural communities dwelling near the forest resources, many urban dwellers depend heavily on the various products derived from the woodlands. This paper highlights the importance of the Miombo in the livelihoods of rural people, the potential threats to this ecosystem and opportunities for its sustainable management. About 70% of energy consumed in southern Africa is in the form of fuelwood or charcoal. The economic importance of the Miombo especially from non-timber forest products (NTFPs) is usually understated due to their perceived non-economic value yet they play an important role in sustaining livelihoods of forest dependent people in the miombo ecoregion. The Miombo also contributes to health services through the use of medicinal plant and products, in some cases, contributing up to 80% to rural health, including helping in coping with effects of HIV/AIDS, malaria and several diseases. The possibility of developing payment for environmental services schemes through public–private partnerships, and community-based sustainable management models are proposed. Through conservation and commercialization of some of the products and services, there is a potential to provide income and improve the livelihood of people involved in the trade along the value chain.     

China's small coal mine policy in the 2000s: A case study of trusteeship and consolidation

China has been trying to improve the safety and environmental performances of small coal mines (SCMs) in 2000s through measures of trusteeship and consolidation. The question whether such policy and practice can sustain small scale mining is interesting academically and important practically for China and the world. This paper finds that the Chinese SCM policy has been switched from encouragement to restriction for legal SCMs and from privatization to nationalization in some provinces in the past 10 years. Legal SCMs face pressure to be expanded continuously and to be absorbed or consolidated by large coal mines, which often are state owned. Unexpectedly, financial resources may not be a big constraint nowadays due to availability of private equity investment resources. The paper argues that both the trusteeship and consolidation approaches may only be able to sustain SCMs in the short run. A more sustainable measure is to establish a stable, transparent and inclusive legal and fiscal framework. This paper concludes that those trusteeship approaches may be applicable to restructuring small scale mines in other countries; however, the consolidation practice in China's is unique and thus may not be applicable to others.     

State Forest Practice Regulatory Programs: An Approach to Implementing Ecosystem Management on Private Forest Lands in the United States

/ Implemented in the context of a long history ofintense public debate, forestry practices applied on private forest land areregulated in some form by 38 states. State regulatory activities can involvemany agencies implementing numerous regulatory laws, a single forestry agencyadministering a comprehensive regulatory program, or a combination of thetwo. Regulatory programs are designed to protect resources such as soils,water, wildlife, and scenic beauty. Program administration often involvesrule promulgation, harvest plan reviews, coordination of interagency reviews,and pre- and postharvest on-site inspections. Forest practice rules usuallyfocus on reforestation, forest roads, harvest procedures, and wildlifehabitat protection. Emerging regulatory trends include growth of multiagencyregulatory authority and associated jurisdictional conflicts, increasedtendencies to narrowly specify standards in statutes and rules, emergence ofcontingent regulations, growing sensitivity to processes enabling theadoption of new forest practice technologies and an ability to addresscumulative effects, interest in collaborative rule-making stemming fromheightened concern over legalization of administration processes, and growingconcern over the constitutional foundations for regulatory programs and thegovernment and private sector cost of implementing such programs.KEY WORDS: Ecosystem management; Forestry practices; Private landowners;Regulatory programs; State government     

PRIVATIZING THE GROUND WATER RESOURCE: INDIVIDUAL USE AND ALTERNATIVE SPECIFICATIONS1

ABSTRACT: While most inquiries into improving the efficiency of ground water allocation have focused upon various schemes involving centralized management, recently the focus has shifted towards exploring private property solutions to these problems. However, most of these studies, when modeling ground water use, have equated behavior under private property to that under common property conditions. This leads to the possibly mistaken conclusion that private property rights do not promote more efficient ground water use, because these models assume that producers ignore the future effects of current pumping. This paper attempts to correct this deficiency by formally modeling ground water use under common property, central management, and private property scenarios. Moreover, there are many ways that property rights can be defined over ground water, some establishing more exclusivity over the resource than others. Four specifications of property rights are analyzed for their likely effects on allocative efficiency: full stock-flow, partial stock-flow, limited stock-flow, and pure flow rights.     

The common property resource problem and the fisheries of Barbados and Jamaica

Common property resources (CPR) tend to be particularly susceptible to depletion and degredation. This creates problems for sustainable development and for resource stewardship in general since many of the key global resources are common property. The article explores the different definitions of CPR and the traps associated with the harvesting of CPR without understanding the social, economic, and environmental costs related to their exploitation. The commons problem may be approached in terms of a private property solution, the allocation of individual quotas to fishermen, or a communal property solution in which communities of fishermen basically manage their own fisheries. The offshore fishery of Barbados lends itself to the private property solution, and the inshore fishery of Jamaica, to the communal property solution.Drawing from case studies of Jamaica and Barbados fisheries, four principles of CPR use are proposed: (a) the solution of the CPR problem starts with the control of access to the resource, (b) increasing production from a CPR depends on the conservation of the resource base, (c) the sustainable utilization of a CPR is closely connected to the use of technology appropriate for the harvest, and (d) local-level management improves prospects for the sustainable use of a CPR. The case studies illustrate that there may be local, national, and international levels of interest over the resource. Hence, the successful management of such resources as Barbados and Jamaica fisheries requires that conflicting demands for the resources be taken into account, perhaps using a cooperative management approach.