Trading Dams

Over the past forty years, environmental trading systems have emerged as one of the primary innovations of American environmental law. In fields ranging from climate change mitigation to wetlands protection, regulated entities may now proceed with otherwise proscribed activities in return for providing extra protection at some other place or time. At their best, these trades achieve environmental goals while increasing flexibility and lowering the economic costs of regulation. In practice, that promise has not always been achieved, and the emergence of environmental trading systems has at times been quite controversial. But they have become increasingly persuasive. This Article considers environmental trading in a new context. The United States contains tens of thousands of dams, and these dams have drastically altered river systems. While many of these dams also provide important societal benefits, a major reconfiguration of America\u27s dams would greatly improve those dams\u27 collective balance between benefits and harms. To date, that kind of major reconfiguration has not taken place. But a restoration project on Maine\u27s Penobscot River illustrates how trading might create such change. By exchanging reduced environmental regulatory constraints and increased energy generation in some locations for dam removals and other environmental improvements elsewhere, the project will create major environmental improvements without any loss of hydropower. *1044 Using that project as a model, this Article analyzes how trading systems might facilitate better reconciliation of the positive benefits and negative impacts of dams. Our conclusions are qualified; while we argue that trading systems hold promise, applying them to dams will not be easy. Nevertheless, the concept is worth pursuing, and we offer a series of legal reforms to that end. More broadly, the analysis illustrates both the promise and the challenges that face environmental trading systems as they continue their expansion through the field of environmental law

Trading Dams

Over the past forty years, environmental trading systems have emerged as one of the primary innovations of American environmental law. In fields ranging from climate change mitigation to wetlands protection, regulated entities may now proceed with otherwise proscribed activities in return for providing extra protection at some other place or time. At their best, these trades achieve environmental goals while increasing flexibility and lowering the economic costs of regulation. In practice, that promise has not always been achieved, and the emergence of environmental trading systems has at times been quite controversial. But they have become increasingly persuasive. This Article considers environmental trading in a new context. The United States contains tens of thousands of dams, and these dams have drastically altered river systems. While many of these dams also provide important societal benefits, a major reconfiguration of America\u27s dams would greatly improve those dams\u27 collective balance between benefits and harms. To date, that kind of major reconfiguration has not taken place. But a restoration project on Maine\u27s Penobscot River illustrates how trading might create such change. By exchanging reduced environmental regulatory constraints and increased energy generation in some locations for dam removals and other environmental improvements elsewhere, the project will create major environmental improvements without any loss of hydropower. *1044 Using that project as a model, this Article analyzes how trading systems might facilitate better reconciliation of the positive benefits and negative impacts of dams. Our conclusions are qualified; while we argue that trading systems hold promise, applying them to dams will not be easy. Nevertheless, the concept is worth pursuing, and we offer a series of legal reforms to that end. More broadly, the analysis illustrates both the promise and the challenges that face environmental trading systems as they continue their expansion through the field of environmental law

Session C4- Northeast aquatic connectivity assessment

The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with members of the Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA), has developed a dam assessment dataset ru1d tool for the NEAFWA region (Maine-Virginia). The dataset and tool provide a screening-level assessment of the relative benefits of dam mitigation to fish passage. Dam data was collected from multiple sources including various state agencies and the Army Corps’ national Inventory of Dams. The dam data was edited for topological agreement with the NHDPlus 1: 100,000 scale hydrography and was extensively reviewed in a GIS by TNC and NEAFWA members prior to the analysis to maximize accuracy. Waterfall data was gathered from the Geographical Names Information System (GNIS) database and anadromous fish data was obtained from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council (ASMFC) 2006 database, assigned to the NHDPlus hydrography, and provided to state contacts for review. For each dam in the reviewed dataset, a suite of metrics assessing connectivity status, potential connectivity improvement, local and watershed habitat conditions, ecological factors, and habitat diversity proxies were calculated. Relative weights were assigned to each metric by the project’s workgroup and aranked list of dams in the study area was produced based on these weighted metrics. Additionally, a database tool that allows users to select a particular spatial extent (state, HUC) for the analysis and input revised metric weights was developed. Future improvements may include conducting the analysis at a finer scale (using 1:24.000 scale hydrography) and the production of a tool which allows for assessments to be conducted given iterative removal scenarios

Tuungane Project Baseline Ecological Study: An Assessment of the Near-shore Biodiversity of Lake Tanganyika in Mahale Mountains National Park and Surrounding Villages

The Tuungane Project is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, Frankfurt Zoological Society, and Pathfinder International that seeks to address the most significant health and environmental issues within the Greater Mahale Ecosystem in Western Tanzania. The Tuungane Project’s current and planned freshwater resource conservation interventions include, but are not limited to, support for development of fisheries co-management institutions (Beach Management Units, or BMUs), protection of fish breeding sites and the existing Mahale freshwater protected area, micro-credit loans to BMU members, reduction of sedimentation through agricultural land use management interventions, education, and capacity-building. This ecological survey focused on the freshwater component of the Lake Tanganyika Ecosystem. The diverse and fascinating animal life of Lake Tanganyika is a rich biological treasure of global significance

Tuungane Project Baseline Ecological Study: An Assessment of the Near-shore Biodiversity of Lake Tanganyika in Mahale Mountains National Park and Surrounding Villages

The Tuungane Project is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, Frankfurt Zoological Society, and Pathfinder International that seeks to address the most significant health and environmental issues within the Greater Mahale Ecosystem in Western Tanzania. The Tuungane Project’s current and planned freshwater resource conservation interventions include, but are not limited to, support for development of fisheries co-management institutions (Beach Management Units, or BMUs), protection of fish breeding sites and the existing Mahale freshwater protected area, micro-credit loans to BMU members, reduction of sedimentation through agricultural land use management interventions, education, and capacity-building. This ecological survey focused on the freshwater component of the Lake Tanganyika Ecosystem. The diverse and fascinating animal life of Lake Tanganyika is a rich biological treasure of global significance

A return-on-investment framework to identify conservation priorities in Africa

Environmental conservation activities must continue to become more efficient and effective, especially in Africa where development and population growth pressures continue to escalate. Recently, prioritization of conservation resources has focused on explicitly incorporating the economic costs of conservation along with better defining the outcomes of these expenditures. We demonstrate how new global and continental data that spans social, economic, and ecological sectors creates an opportunity to incorporate return-on-investment (ROI) principles into conservation priority setting for Africa. We suggest that combining conservation priorities that factor in biodiversity value, habitat quality, and conservation management investments across terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal marine environments provides a new lens for setting global conservation priorities. Using this approach we identified seven regions capturing interior and coastal resources that also have high ROI values that support further investment. We illustrate how spatially explicit, yet flexible ROI analysis can help to better address uncertainty, risk, and opportunities for conservation, while making values that guide prioritization more transparent. In one case the results of this prioritization process were used to support new conservation investments. Acknowledging a clear research need to improve cost information, we propose that adopting a flexible ROI framework to set conservation priorities in Africa has multiple potential benefits

Adoption and consequences of new light-fishing technology (LEDs) on Lake Tanganyika, East Africa.

Maintaining sustainable fisheries requires understanding the influence of technological advances on catch efficiency, as technological creep can ultimately contribute to increased efficiency. Fisheries using light sources for attraction could be widely impacted by the shift to light emitting diode (LED) light systems. We studied the transition from kerosene lanterns to LED lamps in Lake Tanganyika, East Africa, examining factors that led to adoption as well as the impact of the new light sources on fish catch and composition. We used a combination of field experiments with catch assessments, fisher surveys, underwater light spectra measurements, and cost assessments to evaluate the impact of switching from kerosene to LED lamps. Overall, we found a very rapid rate of adoption of homemade outdoor LED light systems in Lake Tanganyika. Most of the batteries used to power these lamps were charged from the city power grid, rather than photovoltaic cells, although the potential exists for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The LED light spectra was distinct from the kerosene light and penetrated much deeper into the water column. Regardless of light type, most of the fish caught within the two dominant species were below maturity. Although the LED lamps were associated with a slight increase in catch, environmental factors, particularly distance offshore, were generally more important in determining fish catch size and composition. The main advantages of the LED lamps were the lower operating costs and their robustness in bad weather. Thus, the primary effect of the use of battery-powered LED lighting systems to attract fish in Lake Tanganyika appears to reduce economic costs and increasing efficiency. However, overall the lake's fishery remains vulnerable to overfishing

Spatial planning for a green economy: National-level hydrologic ecosystem services priority areas for Gabon

<div><p>Rapidly developing countries contain both the bulk of intact natural areas and biodiversity, and the greatest untapped natural resource stocks, placing them at the forefront of “green” economic development opportunities. However, most lack scientific tools to create development plans that account for biodiversity and ecosystem services, diminishing the real potential to be sustainable. Existing methods focus on biodiversity and carbon priority areas across large geographies (e.g., countries, states/provinces), leaving out essential services associated with water supplies, among others. These hydrologic ecosystem services (HES) are especially absent from methods applied at large geographies and in data-limited contexts. Here, we present a novel, spatially explicit, and relatively simple methodology to identify countrywide HES priority areas. We applied our methodology to the Gabonese Republic, a country undergoing a major economic transformation under a governmental commitment to balance conservation and development goals. We present the first national-scale maps of HES priority areas across Gabon for erosion control, nutrient retention, and groundwater recharge. Priority sub-watersheds covered 44% of the country’s extent. Only 3% of the country was identified as a priority area for all HES simultaneously, highlighting the need to conserve different areas for each different hydrologic service. While spatial tradeoffs occur amongst HES, we identified synergies with two other conservation values, given that 66% of HES priority areas intersect regions of above average area-weighted (by sub-watersheds) total forest carbon stocks and 38% intersect with terrestrial national parks. Considering implications for development, we identified HES priority areas overlapping current or proposed major roads, forestry concessions, and active mining concessions, highlighting the need for proactive planning for avoidance areas and compensatory offsets to mitigate potential conflicts. Collectively, our results provide insight into strategies to protect HES as part of Gabon’s development strategy, while providing a replicable methodology for application to new scales, geographies, and policy contexts.</p></div