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Written by Dylan Brewer, PERC Summer Intern

Québec’s zones d'exploitation contrôlée (ZECs) are one of the best kept secrets of conservation. Created in 1978 with the Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune’s (MRNF) launch of “Opération gestion faune,” ZECs are non-profit organizations in charge of managing wildlife resources. Each zone is headed by supervisors elected by paying members. In 1991, Terry Anderson and Donald Leal’s book Free Market Environmentalism looked at ZECs, praising their pricing system as “instrumental in maintaining high quality recreation.” Today, as the program nears its 35^th year, ZECs are thriving and now serve more than 250,000 visitors per year.

When ZECs were started in 1978, each zone was charged with managing hunting and fishing within a certain domain. Prior to ZECs, public lands were managed by private clubs. The main criticism of the club system was that it was too restrictive on community involvement -- many of the clubs were controlled by non-Canadians and non-residents, and poaching was widespread. The ZEC program began with the instrumental requirement that each ZEC obtain the necessary resources to cover their costs. Because the ZECs must be self-sustaining, there is an incentive to charge a reasonable and profitable price to users. Further, managers are incentivized to protect the flora and fauna of the area as a future revenue stream.

In 1982, the Fédération Québécoise des Gestionnaires de Zecs (FQGZ) was created to represent the ZECs before Québec’s provincial government. With this structure in place, the program grew without major change until 1999 when the FQGZ proposed to the MRNF that ZECs be given the opportunity to manage recreation beyond fishing and hunting. Following the MRNF’s approval of the proposal, activities offered by ZECs have expanded to include camping, hiking, and other activities. This expansion can be attributed to the requirement that ZECs generate their own funds. Recognizing demand for new goods, managers are able to change their business model rather than remain “frozen in time” like other government programs.

Over the course of 35 years, ZECs have been able to both make a profit as well as preserve wildlife. The question now is how to implement this system outside of Québec. While ZECs do not rely heavily on cultural norms unique to Quebec, the Québécios have had a history of paying to access recreational land. In the United States, new fees would be a barrier to the program at the local level, but giving locals the ultimate control of pricing and services may sidestep the problem.

The increasing scarcity of water around the world prompts heated debate over the effectiveness of conservation efforts and policy initiatives.

Is water becoming increasingly scarce? If recent usage trends continue, many people believe that shortages are inevitable. Aquanomics, edited by B. Delworth Gardner and  PERC Senior Fellow Randy Simmons, comprehensively examines a full range of water problems. Authors, including PERC Fellows Brandon Scarborough and P.J. Hill, reveal measures that should be implemented to avoid the onset of possible “water crises.” These policies include establishing secure and transferable private water rights and extending these rights to uses that traditionally have not been allowed, including altering in-stream flows and ecosystem operations. The authors argue that such policies will help maximize water quantity and quality even if water becomes scarcer and more valuable.

Mark Twain once quipped, “Whiskey is for drinkin’, water is for fightin’ over.” However, the authors of Aquanomics now provide proven solutions to such potential conflicts by establishing the validity of market-based approaches.

Buy Aquanomics here from The Independent Institute.

Federal and local government spending on invasive flora and fauna amounts to almost $3 billion annually. That’s over three times the $830 million in actual damages caused by these non-natives. As the battle against invasive species mounts, PERC Enviropreneur Institute alum Paul Schwennesen, asks, “might our fascination with biotic menace be somewhat overblown?”

As a rancher in the Southwest, Schwennesen has seen his fair share of invasive species. Instead of upsetting the “delicate” natural balance of his land, however, he argues the Salt Cedar and Buffelgrass, amongst other non-natives, are a part of a fluid and dynamic equilibrium defined by competing and cooperating species.

Schwennesen notes that the helicopter-borne chemical raids employed to fight the intruders may be worse than the disease and calls for a reevaluation of nature’s natural processes:

Ralph Waldo Emerson famously declared weeds to be "plants whose virtues had yet to be discovered." I have to agree. The frantic hand-wringing that accompanies most descriptions of "invasives" betrays a glaring lack of faith in the resilience of our natural world. More to point, perhaps, is the curiously rare recognition that life, in its perennial pursuit to fill vacuums, generally creates abundance and profusion. Attempts to artificially prevent this usually cost more than the supposed damage to be mitigated.

Publishers Weekly recommends The Locavore's Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000 Mile Diet, co-authored by former PERC fellows Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu, as a book to watch for in 2012.

Check out Shimizu's piece in  PERC Reports where she outlines three myths about eating local.

• Myth 1: Eating locally produced food reduces our environmental impact.
• Myth 2: Local food is inherently safer.
• Myth 3: Local food promotes economic growth and social justice.

"In short, the best way to reduce the carbon footprint of agricultural production is to produce food where it can be done most efficiently and to engage in international trade. Selecting food based on its affordability, availability, and quality is a better way to help the planet than focusing on food miles."