The Environmental Impacts of Different Property Rights Regimes
Ojanen, Maria et al.
Property rights to natural resources comprise a major policy instrument for those seeking to advance sustainable resource use, conservation and poverty reduction objectives. Despite decades of policy experimentation and empirical research, however, clear understanding based on systematic assessment of the influence of different property rights regimes on environmental outcomes remains elusive. A large, diverse, and rapidly growing body of literature investigates the links between property regimes and environmental outcomes, but has not synthesized theoretical and policy insights within specific resource systems nor has it done so across resource systems. In this paper we present the preliminary findings of a systematic review of evidence on this topic published between 1990 and 2014. The review assesses the effect of property rights regimes on environmental outcomes in three resource systems in developing countries: forests, fisheries and rangelands. Taking a bundle of rights approach, we analyse the constituent rights of three broad property regimesscommon, government, and private propertyyfound in these resource systems. By examining evidence both within and across different resource systems, we are able to draw robust conclusions about the impacts of different property rights regimes and how they are shaped by social-ecological context.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2015
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