Property rights are a tool humans use in regulating their use of natural resources. Understanding how rights to resources are assigned and how they are controlled is critical to designing and implementing effective strategies for environmental management and conservation.Rights to Nature is a nontechnical, interdisciplinary introduction to the systems of rights, rules, and responsibilities that guide and control human use of the environment. Following a brief overview of the relationship between property rights and the natural environment, chapters consider: ecological systems and how they function the effects of culture, values, and social organization on the use of natural resources the design and development of property rights regimes and the costs of their operation cultural factors that affect the design and implementation of property rights systems coordination across geographic and jurisdictional boundaries The book provides a valuable synthesis of information on how property rights develop, why they develop in certain ways, and the ways in which they function. Representing a unique integration of natural and social science, it addresses the full range of ecological, economic, cultural, and political factors that affect natural resource management and use, and provides valuable insight into the role of property rights regimes in establishing societies that are equitable, efficient, and sustainable.
About the Contributors Foreword \ Kenneth J. Arrow
Chapter 1. Property Rights and the Natural Environment
PART I. The Interface between Social and Ecological Systems Chapter 2. The Structure And Function of Ecological Systems in Relation to Property-Rights Regimes Chapter 3. Human Use of the Natural Environment: An Overview of Social and Economic Dimensions Chapter 4. Dynamics of (Dis)harmony in Ecological and Social Systems Chapter 5. Social Systems, Ecological Systems, and Property Rights
PART II. The Structure and Formation of Property Rights Chapter 6. Common and Private Concerns Chapter 7. The Formation of Property Rights Chapter 8. The Economics of Control and the Cost of Property Rights
PART III. Culture, Economic Development, and Property Rights Chapter 9. Culture and Property Rights Chapter 10. Property Rights and Development
PART IV. Property Rights at Different Scales Chapter 11. Common-Property Regimes as a Solution to Problems of Scale and Linkage Chapter 12. Rights, Rules, and Resources in International Society Chapter 13. Building Property Rights for Transboundary Resources
