Research
Reports
Montana: On the Verge of Collapse?
In his latest book, Collapse: How Societies Succeed or Fail, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond attempts to explain how a number of small, isolated societies, from Easter Island to Greenland, destroyed their environments and disappeared
Conservation Easements: A Closer Look at Federal Tax Policy
Land trusts and one of their important tools, conservation easements, are major forces in today's environmental movement. Conservation easements are partial interests in land that prohibit intense development.
Rescuing Water Markets: Lessons from Owens Valley
A look at the problems that surrounded the Ownes Valley water transfers and the lessons that can be applied to water trades today.
Conserving Biodiversity through Markets: A Better Approach
What is the best way to preserve species-rich tropical habitats? During the past two decades, international conservation groups have attempted to save habitats by combining conservation with development.
Recreation Fees: Four Philosophical Questions
Beginning in 1996, the federal government started raising (and in some cases newly instituting) recreation fees on public lands and using them at the sites where they were collected. This Fee Demonstration Program, which is scheduled to end in 2004, has sparked a debate over ethical and practical issues.
Averting Water Disputes: A Southeastern Case Study
With abundant rainfall, the southeastern United States has rarely experienced conflicts over the allocation of water. But that is changing. As population grows, the demand for water grows, and when periodic drought occurs, disputes can result.
Saving Salmon the American Indian Way
This Policy Series challenges a popular romantic myth—the idea that Native Americans had little regard for property rights. The experience of Native American salmon fishing off the northwestern coast of the United States and the southwestern coast of Canada refutes this notion.
Eight Great Myths of Recycling
Eight Great Myths of Recycling, by Daniel K. Benjamin, exposes the errors and falsehoods underlying the rhetoric. It clarifies the appropriate role of recycling, based on history and market relationships.
Restoring Harmony in the Klamath Basin
Restoring Harmony in the Klamath Basin explains how this conflict developed and offers a solution—markets in water. Written by Roger Meiners and Lea-Rachel Kosnik, this paper persuasively argues that clarification of property rights to water is fundamental to ending the crisis.