Writing for PERC, R. David Simpson gives an intriguing example of salmon preservation: Native American tribes in Oregon considered bidding on a dam license (to change its operations in ways that would protect salmon). The result: a productive relationship with the dam owners—a cooperative effort to protect salmon. Here is an excerpt from Simpson’s paper:…
Search Results for: property rights
How to Reduce Deforestation in Brazil? Establish Property Rights
By Jane Shaw Stroup In a classic illustration of the way that property rights can protect the environment, Brazil is attempting to establish property rights for squatters who have been cutting down trees in the Amazon in order to create pastureland for cattle. The Wall Street Journal just published a comprehensive overview of this plan…
Holly Fretwell
Director of outreach and a research fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). For two decades, her research has focused on public lands policy and property rights. As an outdoor enthusiast, Fretwell strives to enhance conservation through cooperation and entrepreneurship.
The Dangerous Turn to Conservation Syndicates
For 30 years, I was an appraiser and a frequent expert witness on the value of property. Sometimes government agencies would condemn property under eminent domain, and I would estimate what the agency should pay the owner; at other times, I estimated the value of land or easements given to a conservation group such as…
Did You Know a Debate Is Brewing over Conservation Easements?
They are more popular than ever but also controversial, writes Alex Brown for Stateline, a journalistic initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts: “[T]he growing interest in preserving privately held land has sparked a fierce debate between supporters who say such efforts guarantee environmental protections and critics who say they take away individual property rights.” Conservation…
Beach House Burns but Couple Can’t Rebuild
Four and a half years ago Michael and Cathy Zito’s house on the North Carolina coast burned down. State and local governments have prevented the Zitos from rebuilding—and refuse to compensate them for the loss of their home! Erin Wilcox writes in the Carolina Journal: “The Zitos’ house was built in 1982 when it was…