Matching Items (2)
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- All Subjects: Environmental Economics
- Creators: York, Abigail
Description
Many wildlife species that are essential to human livelihoods are targeted with the aim of extracting short-term benefits. Overexploitation, resulting from failed common-pool resource governance, has endangered the sustainability of large animal species, in particular. Rights-based approaches to wildlife conservation offer a possible path forward. In a wildlife market, property rights, or shares of an animal population, are allocated to resource users with interests in either harvest or preservation. Here, I apply the Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework (Ostrom, 2009) to identify the conditions under which the ecological, social, and economic outcomes of a conservation market are improved compared to the status quo. I first consider three case studies (Bighorn sheep, white rhino, and Atlantic Bluefin tuna) all of which employ different market mechanisms. Based on the SES framework and these case studies, I then evaluate whether markets are a feasible management option for other socially and ecologically significant species, such as whales (and similar highly migratory species), and whether market instruments are capable of accommodating non-consumptive environmental values in natural resource decision making. My results suggest that spatial and temporal distribution, ethical and cultural relevance, and institutional histories compatible with commodification of wildlife are key SES subsystem variables. Successful conservation markets for cross-boundary marine species, such as whales, sea turtles, and sharks, will require intergovernmental agreements.
ContributorsSturm, Melanie (Author) / Minteer, Ben A (Thesis advisor) / Gerber, Leah R. (Thesis advisor) / Perrings, Charles (Committee member) / York, Abigail (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Water scarcity in the Western United States has been the focus of recent policy discussion. Researchers and policymakers agree that the implications of water scarcity are severe and widespread, and as such have stressed the importance of addressing water allocation in the short term and long term. However, this urgency has led to some short-term solutions, like rotational fallowing, being implemented without evaluation, or some long-term solutions, like re-structuring of rights, being suggested without precedent. This dissertation aims at reducing the gap between proposed solutions, existing data, and program evaluation by developing and analyzing two novel datasets useful for causal identification, evaluating both a long-term and short-term approach to water scarcity with these data, and finally demonstrating the ability of overlapping institutions to respond to increasing weather variability. Chapter 1 evaluates a short-term approach, rotational fallowing, and identifies the impact of this approach on water savings. Chapter 2 develops novel trade panel data and exploits the only share-based water market in the US: the Colorado-Big Thompson Project. This chapter compares trade and crop choice outside of the CBT, to those same outcomes within the CBT, and identifies the differences. Chapter 3 expands on crop choice within the CBT and identifies the extent to which overlapping institutions can mediate weather variability compared to prior appropriation.
ContributorsWright, Katherine (Author) / Leonard, Bryan (Thesis advisor) / Abbott, Joshua (Committee member) / York, Abigail (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023