The State of the States in Environmental Dispute Resolution

Published in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolutio

The Promises and Perils of Building a Co-Management Regime: An Assessment of New Zealand's Efforts between 1999 and 2005

Fisheries co-management is now well-established in the literature as a fisheries governance approach (e.g., Wilson et al, 2003; Hanna, 2003; Pomeroy et al, 2001). While co-management regimes have historically developed from the amalgamation of traditional community management with government authority (e.g., Acheson, 2003; Makino, 2005) However, another key insight is that the expansion of role of property rights provides the incentive for resource users to manage a resource sustainably (Schlager & Ostrom, 1996). In New Zealand, an expansive interpretation of what property rights ITQs represent provided a means for the development of fisheries co-management regimes (Yandle, 2003). In 1999, a co-management regime was codified and continues today. This paper tracks the development of New Zealand's co-management regime over its first six years. A variety of techniques are used including: multiple surveys (1999, 2001, 2005) of Commercial Stakeholder Organizations (CSOs) - the organizations largely involved in the implementation of New Zealand's co-management regimes; interviews with key participants in government and industry; and document analysis. Results show that while co-management made rapid initial progress, recent efforts have stagnated. Institutional analysis (e.g., Ostrom, 1990; Ostom et al, 1994; Imperial & Yandle, 2005) is used to examine why this stagnation occurred, how it could have been avoided, and possible implications for future co-management development in large developed fisheries

Philanthropic Support of National Parks: Analysis Using the Social-Ecological Systems Framework

Ostrom’s social-ecological systems (SES) framework infrequently has been applied to civil society research. But its focus on collective action may help explain why some national parks are more successful at attracting philanthropic resources to supplement stagnant public funding. We examine two types of charitable supporting organizations: “Friends of” Groups (FOGs), which typically emphasize fundraising, and Cooperating Associations (CAs), which typically emphasize visitor support. We identify their partnership patterns across more than 300 national park units. Our findings suggest that FOGs and CAs fill different niches. CAs are drawn to more popular parks or memorials, and FOGs are found in parks with smaller budgets or offering fewer activities. Actor characteristics play a secondary role in explaining nonprofit incidence. The holistic approach of the SES perspective demonstrates the importance of connecting resource systems to institutional settings and actor attributes

Understanding the Consequences of Property Rights Mismatches: a Case Study of New Zealand's Marine Resources

Within fisheries and natural resource management literature, there is considerable discussion about the key roles that property rights can play in building biologically and socially sustainable resource management regimes. A key point of agreement is that secure long-term property rights provide an incentive for resource users to manage the resource sustainably. However, property rights mismatches create ambiguity and conflict in resource use. Though the term mismatches is usually associated with problems in matching temporal and spatial resource characteristics with institutional characteristics, I expand it here to include problems that can arise when property rights are incompletely defined or incompletely distributed. Property rights mismatches are particularly likely to occur over marine resources, for which multiple types of resource and resource user can be engaged and managed under a variety of regulatory regimes. I used New Zealand's marine resources to examine the causes and consequences of these property rights mismatches. New Zealand is particularly interesting because its property-rights-based commercial fishing regime, in the form of individual transferable quotas, has attracted considerable positive attention. However, my review of the marine natural resource management regime from a broader property rights perspective highlights a series of problems caused by property rights mismatches, including competition for resources among commercial, customary, and recreational fishers; spatial conflict among many marine resource users; and conflicting incentives and objectives for the management of resources over time. The use of a property rights perspective also highlights some potential solutions such as the layering of institutional arrangements and the improvement of how property rights are defined to encourage long-term sustainability

“You Can’t Catch ‘Em and Sell ‘Em”: Perceptions of Obstacles to Direct Marketing among Georgia Fishers

Direct marketing of seafood is a promising avenue for seafood sales in the United States, utilizing local foods venues such as farmers markets and Community Supported Fisheries (CSFs). While interest in locally sourced seafood among local foods communities in Atlanta and Athens, Georgia is high, fishers from coastal Georgia have not filled this profitable niche. We investigate why this opportunity is not exploited by conducting qualitative interviews with twenty-one fishers. Fishers described numerous obstacles to direct marketing, focused on the simultaneous labor investment in on-shore and “on the water” efforts. In addition, fishers’ concerns reveal the financial and social risks that fishers would undertake by attempting to sell seafood outside of their existing economic arrangements with docks. This relationship echoes the understudied patron-client relationships described in fisheries in Southeast Asia. We conclude with a recommendation for modifying direct marketing expectations to accommodate successful integration of seafood

“You Can’t Catch ‘Em and Sell ‘Em”: Perceptions of Obstacles to Direct Marketing among Georgia Fishers

Direct marketing of seafood is a promising avenue for seafood sales in the United States, utilizing local foods venues such as farmers markets and Community Supported Fisheries (CSFs). While interest in locally sourced seafood among local foods communities in Atlanta and Athens, Georgia is high, fishers from coastal Georgia have not filled this profitable niche. We investigate why this opportunity is not exploited by conducting qualitative interviews with twenty-one fishers. Fishers described numerous obstacles to direct marketing, focused on the simultaneous labor investment in on-shore and “on the water” efforts. In addition, fishers’ concerns reveal the financial and social risks that fishers would undertake by attempting to sell seafood outside of their existing economic arrangements with docks. This relationship echoes the understudied patron-client relationships described in fisheries in Southeast Asia. We conclude with a recommendation for modifying direct marketing expectations to accommodate successful integration of seafood