Academic

Adler on Anti-Conservation Incentives

By Lawrence Solum

Jonathan H. Adler (Case Western Reserve University - School of Law) has posted Anti-Conservation Incentives (Regulation, Vol. 30, No. 4, Winter 2007-2008) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Several recent empirical studies have indicated that the Endangered Specifies Act (ESA) discourages species conservation on private land. This is because the law encourages landowners to "shoot, shovel and shut up" before federal authorities discover the species are present or may move onto the land. Most worrisome, the studies suggest that the net effect of the ESA on private land could be negative. Habitat loss and fragmentation represent the greatest threat to endangered species because private land is indispensable to environmental conservation.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on February 13, 2008 (boomark / email).