Jane da Mosto, C. Bertolini, A. Markandya, T. Spencer, Arnas Palaima, L. Onofri
Safeguarding the future of Venice is a globally recognised challenge of urban sustainability. We propose a sustainable management model, alternative to the current strategy, that primarily focuses on the built heritage and which interprets the city together with its encircling lagoon as a matrix of interlinked natural, cultural and social capital. In particular, Venetian natural capital can be valued as a stock of wealth that produces a flow of income, its ecosystem services. Such values can be measured in economic, including monetary, terms. Using the examples of salt marsh and seagrass carbon sequestration, together with sediment retention, water purification and artisanal fishery and aquaculture, we show that it is economically viable to develop and reorientate the nearfuture trajectory of Venice and its lagoon with reference to a more sustainable pathway, where the natural capital is a driver of future economic development and, as such, is comparable with the value of currently dominant economic activities (port and mass tourism).
{"title":"Rethinking Venice from an Ecosystem Services Perspective","authors":"Jane da Mosto, C. Bertolini, A. Markandya, T. Spencer, Arnas Palaima, L. Onofri","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3749939","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3749939","url":null,"abstract":"Safeguarding the future of Venice is a globally recognised challenge of urban sustainability. We propose a sustainable management model, alternative to the current strategy, that primarily focuses on the built heritage and which interprets the city together with its encircling lagoon as a matrix of interlinked natural, cultural and social capital. In particular, Venetian natural capital can be valued as a stock of wealth that produces a flow of income, its ecosystem services. Such values can be measured in economic, including monetary, terms. Using the examples of salt marsh and seagrass carbon sequestration, together with sediment retention, water purification and artisanal fishery and aquaculture, we show that it is economically viable to develop and reorientate the nearfuture trajectory of Venice and its lagoon with reference to a more sustainable pathway, where the natural capital is a driver of future economic development and, as such, is comparable with the value of currently dominant economic activities (port and mass tourism).","PeriodicalId":445990,"journal":{"name":"Protected Lands Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123948615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Conservation covenants over private land are extensively used in some jurisdictions to secure a wide range of public benefits: in some cases primarily to promote nature conservation, while elsewhere to foster conservation alongside greater public access to ‘green’ space. This article considers the use of conservation covenants in New Zealand, Scotland, and England and Wales. It argues that they can play a unique role in balancing nature conservation, property rights and increased public access to private land. It reviews proposals for new legislation in England and Wales and argues that, if it is to be successful, the potential of conservation covenants to secure greater public access to private land should be more strongly emphasised. Their successful use in New Zealand shows that, while recognising the important balancing function that they can perform, this emphasis is critically important if covenants are to fulfil their potential to ‘reconnect’ people and nature.
{"title":"Covenanting for Nature: A Comparative Study of the Utility and Potential of Conservation Covenants","authors":"C. Rodgers, D. Grinlinton","doi":"10.1111/1468-2230.12504","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12504","url":null,"abstract":"Conservation covenants over private land are extensively used in some jurisdictions to secure a wide range of public benefits: in some cases primarily to promote nature conservation, while elsewhere to foster conservation alongside greater public access to ‘green’ space. This article considers the use of conservation covenants in New Zealand, Scotland, and England and Wales. It argues that they can play a unique role in balancing nature conservation, property rights and increased public access to private land. It reviews proposals for new legislation in England and Wales and argues that, if it is to be successful, the potential of conservation covenants to secure greater public access to private land should be more strongly emphasised. Their successful use in New Zealand shows that, while recognising the important balancing function that they can perform, this emphasis is critically important if covenants are to fulfil their potential to ‘reconnect’ people and nature.","PeriodicalId":445990,"journal":{"name":"Protected Lands Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"124 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115449567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ahmad Syafi'i Sulaiman Jamrozi Ahmad Syafi'i, Ratno Lukito
The development of property right to land, in its historical trajectory, has shown a fairly dynamic development. In the Indonesian context, the dynamics, at least seen in the diverse conceptions of the state's rights of control over the land from the colonial era with its Domein Verklaring up to the national era with its State's Right of Control. This paper aims to examine issues of legitimacy and authority of state control over land. By using socio-anthropological approach and Islamic law perspective, this study shows that although the logic of the state authority in land tenure takes place dynamically, the existence of indigenous peoples with their customary law and ulayat rights basically has not experienced significant process of change, even though the ruler and political law are different. Both of these concepts in the realm of practice appear to equally place the indigenous peoples following their customary rights in marginalized positions.
{"title":"The Logic of State Authority on the Control of Agrarian Resource (Socio-Anthropological and Islamic Perspective)","authors":"Ahmad Syafi'i Sulaiman Jamrozi Ahmad Syafi'i, Ratno Lukito","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3481739","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3481739","url":null,"abstract":"The development of property right to land, in its historical trajectory, has shown a fairly dynamic development. In the Indonesian context, the dynamics, at least seen in the diverse conceptions of the state's rights of control over the land from the colonial era with its Domein Verklaring up to the national era with its State's Right of Control. This paper aims to examine issues of legitimacy and authority of state control over land. By using socio-anthropological approach and Islamic law perspective, this study shows that although the logic of the state authority in land tenure takes place dynamically, the existence of indigenous peoples with their customary law and ulayat rights basically has not experienced significant process of change, even though the ruler and political law are different. Both of these concepts in the realm of practice appear to equally place the indigenous peoples following their customary rights in marginalized positions.","PeriodicalId":445990,"journal":{"name":"Protected Lands Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124948940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Endangered Species Act creates perverse incentives for private landowners to destroy potential habitat in order to prevent endangered species from moving onto their properties. Federal agencies recognize these incentives and have tried to counter them with safe-harbor programs that allow landowners to voluntarily provide conservation in exchange for more regulatory certainty. Congress and agencies are both interested in shifting enforcement of the ESA toward this type of voluntary conservation, but there is little evidence of the effectiveness of these programs. This paper uses parcel-level data from federal agencies to provide the first empirical estimates of the effectiveness of a federal safe-harbor program. I find evidence that the program successfully decreases timber harvest behavior that appears to be targeting potential habitat. Based on estimates from both triple-difference and matching models, participation in the safe-harbor program is associated with a 7 to 13 percentage point decrease in harvest activity. The safe-harbor program holds promise to conserve imperiled wildlife while allowing landowners' greater flexibility to maintain traditional land uses.
{"title":"Perverse Incentives and Safe Harbors in the Endangered Species Act: Evidence from Timber Harvests Near Woodpeckers","authors":"Jacob P. Byl","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3064108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3064108","url":null,"abstract":"The Endangered Species Act creates perverse incentives for private landowners to destroy potential habitat in order to prevent endangered species from moving onto their properties. Federal agencies recognize these incentives and have tried to counter them with safe-harbor programs that allow landowners to voluntarily provide conservation in exchange for more regulatory certainty. Congress and agencies are both interested in shifting enforcement of the ESA toward this type of voluntary conservation, but there is little evidence of the effectiveness of these programs. This paper uses parcel-level data from federal agencies to provide the first empirical estimates of the effectiveness of a federal safe-harbor program. I find evidence that the program successfully decreases timber harvest behavior that appears to be targeting potential habitat. Based on estimates from both triple-difference and matching models, participation in the safe-harbor program is associated with a 7 to 13 percentage point decrease in harvest activity. The safe-harbor program holds promise to conserve imperiled wildlife while allowing landowners' greater flexibility to maintain traditional land uses.","PeriodicalId":445990,"journal":{"name":"Protected Lands Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129349479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Recent Latin American constitutions tend to share two peculiar features: they recognize and protect the collective and inalienable land ownership of ethnic groups to their ancestral lands; they also declare the State’s duty to ensure access to land property to the landless through the allocation of public lands and the expropriation of private ones. Offering a historical account of land property rights in Latin America, I argue that, with the exception of current constitutions, collective and public land rights have tended to be recognized and protected mainly under non-liberal legal systems that foresee plural modalities of property. Under liberal legal systems, in contrast, collective property has been prohibited de jure and often persecuted de facto, seen as an impediment to economic development and private investment. I finally analyze current constitutions as engendering an odd combination of plural modalities of property rights and the promotion of neoliberalism and natural resources exploitation.
{"title":"Property and Land","authors":"María Paula Saffon","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3259298","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3259298","url":null,"abstract":"Recent Latin American constitutions tend to share two peculiar features: they recognize and protect the collective and inalienable land ownership of ethnic groups to their ancestral lands; they also declare the State’s duty to ensure access to land property to the landless through the allocation of public lands and the expropriation of private ones. Offering a historical account of land property rights in Latin America, I argue that, with the exception of current constitutions, collective and public land rights have tended to be recognized and protected mainly under non-liberal legal systems that foresee plural modalities of property. Under liberal legal systems, in contrast, collective property has been prohibited de jure and often persecuted de facto, seen as an impediment to economic development and private investment. I finally analyze current constitutions as engendering an odd combination of plural modalities of property rights and the promotion of neoliberalism and natural resources exploitation.","PeriodicalId":445990,"journal":{"name":"Protected Lands Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126794942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-10-01DOI: 10.22394/1996-0522-2017-5-91-100
S. Gordeyev, S. Zyrianov, Oleg Ivanov, A. Yakovlev
The paper dwells upon the theoretical foundations and practical issues of the development of a biosphere reserve as a component of a major social, environmental, and economic system. Mining South Ural is a biosphere reserve that is cited as an example of how the success of its development depends on the opportunity and adequacy of adapting the requirements of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves regulations (the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere program) to the historical specific issues of the reserve and its surrounding areas. Particular attention is paid to the specific matters of how the biosphere reserve has been formed under the conditions of the spatial integration of natural and urbanized areas of the old industrial region. The paper demonstrates the specifics of creating project-based solutions and drafting a biosphere reserve management plan for industrially developed areas.
{"title":"Social, Environmental, and Economic Fundamentals for the Development of a Biosphere Reserve in the Mining Area of South Ural","authors":"S. Gordeyev, S. Zyrianov, Oleg Ivanov, A. Yakovlev","doi":"10.22394/1996-0522-2017-5-91-100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22394/1996-0522-2017-5-91-100","url":null,"abstract":"The paper dwells upon the theoretical foundations and practical issues of the development of a biosphere reserve as a component of a major social, environmental, and economic system. Mining South Ural is a biosphere reserve that is cited as an example of how the success of its development depends on the opportunity and adequacy of adapting the requirements of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves regulations (the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere program) to the historical specific issues of the reserve and its surrounding areas. Particular attention is paid to the specific matters of how the biosphere reserve has been formed under the conditions of the spatial integration of natural and urbanized areas of the old industrial region. The paper demonstrates the specifics of creating project-based solutions and drafting a biosphere reserve management plan for industrially developed areas.","PeriodicalId":445990,"journal":{"name":"Protected Lands Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128027838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We present a general model of bidding behavior in wildlife corridor auctions. Given (i) some spatial configuration of landowners in a landscape, (ii) the landowners’ opportunity costs, and (iii) the value of establishing the corridor, our model predicts individual landowners’ bids, overall participation rates in the auction, as well as the expected net benefits to the conservation agency. We find that market efficiency of the auction increases in the number of potential corridors. We use simulations to compare a benchmark auction with two policy scenarios in a hypothetical landscape. In one scenario, members of a winning corridor receive an agglomeration bonus. In the other scenario, we buy out a pivotal landowner (one that is part of many potential corridors) prior to the auction. Given equal budgets for the agglomeration bonus and the buyout policy, an agglomeration bonus is less efficient than a buyout for conservation agencies facing low budgets, and vice versa. A risk-averse conservation agency is however always better off using a buyout policy.
{"title":"Buyouts and Agglomeration Bonuses in Wildlife Corridor Auctions","authors":"J. Dijk, E. Ansink, D. van Soest","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2946850","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2946850","url":null,"abstract":"We present a general model of bidding behavior in wildlife corridor auctions. Given (i) some spatial configuration of landowners in a landscape, (ii) the landowners’ opportunity costs, and (iii) the value of establishing the corridor, our model predicts individual landowners’ bids, overall participation rates in the auction, as well as the expected net benefits to the conservation agency. We find that market efficiency of the auction increases in the number of potential corridors. We use simulations to compare a benchmark auction with two policy scenarios in a hypothetical landscape. In one scenario, members of a winning corridor receive an agglomeration bonus. In the other scenario, we buy out a pivotal landowner (one that is part of many potential corridors) prior to the auction. Given equal budgets for the agglomeration bonus and the buyout policy, an agglomeration bonus is less efficient than a buyout for conservation agencies facing low budgets, and vice versa. A risk-averse conservation agency is however always better off using a buyout policy.","PeriodicalId":445990,"journal":{"name":"Protected Lands Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"158 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131851420","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area was established September 1, 1965. In 2015, the Fiftieth Anniversary of this acquisition for the National Park Service, it is important to reflect on the rich legal and environmental history that led the area to this turning point. This article overviews and chronicles that checkered history.
特拉华水峡国家游乐区成立于1965年9月1日。2015年是美国国家公园管理局(National Park Service)收购该地区50周年，反思导致该地区走向这一转折点的丰富的法律和环境历史是很重要的。本文概述并记录了这段曲折的历史。
{"title":"A Reflection on 50 Years of the Delaware Water Gap and the History of the Tocks Island Dam Project","authors":"Rachel Marlowe","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2674228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2674228","url":null,"abstract":"The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area was established September 1, 1965. In 2015, the Fiftieth Anniversary of this acquisition for the National Park Service, it is important to reflect on the rich legal and environmental history that led the area to this turning point. This article overviews and chronicles that checkered history.","PeriodicalId":445990,"journal":{"name":"Protected Lands Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130601670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The total grazing and browsing area in Ethiopia is about 62 million hectares at the peripheral which accounts about 60% of total land mass (PFE 2009). Pastoralists and agro-pastoralists are the main range land users. Range lands support livelihoods of about 12 million populations in dry lands of Ethiopia (CSA, 2007). Literatures are indicating that the range lands today are in danger of degradation due to natural and human induced factors (Coppock, 1994). Inappropriate management, inter alia, relates to. issues of land policy and administration. The objective of this review is therefore, to examine the institutional and policy gaps related to land policy and administration in pastoral range lands. In this respect, an assessment of land policies and institutions; The results of the desk review indicated that increasingly, the policies and legislation provide a more facilitating environment for sustainable use and management of range lands and their natural resources. Despite these positive policy moves, the full implementation is yet to be realized on the facilitating policies and legislation that protect range land resources for and by local populations. Until such time, pastoralists, and other rangeland users will continue to be facing many challenges. This paper highlights that though policy and legislation are improving, the land reform also needs to take into account and address; development of appropriate institutions with effective power; active participation of customary institutions and civil society engagement as a vital actions in securing land and resource rights.
{"title":"Pastoral Rangelands Policy and Institutional Concerns in Ethiopia","authors":"D. Gelan","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2524948","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2524948","url":null,"abstract":"The total grazing and browsing area in Ethiopia is about 62 million hectares at the peripheral which accounts about 60% of total land mass (PFE 2009). Pastoralists and agro-pastoralists are the main range land users. Range lands support livelihoods of about 12 million populations in dry lands of Ethiopia (CSA, 2007). Literatures are indicating that the range lands today are in danger of degradation due to natural and human induced factors (Coppock, 1994). Inappropriate management, inter alia, relates to. issues of land policy and administration. The objective of this review is therefore, to examine the institutional and policy gaps related to land policy and administration in pastoral range lands. In this respect, an assessment of land policies and institutions; The results of the desk review indicated that increasingly, the policies and legislation provide a more facilitating environment for sustainable use and management of range lands and their natural resources. Despite these positive policy moves, the full implementation is yet to be realized on the facilitating policies and legislation that protect range land resources for and by local populations. Until such time, pastoralists, and other rangeland users will continue to be facing many challenges. This paper highlights that though policy and legislation are improving, the land reform also needs to take into account and address; development of appropriate institutions with effective power; active participation of customary institutions and civil society engagement as a vital actions in securing land and resource rights.","PeriodicalId":445990,"journal":{"name":"Protected Lands Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123664545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Between 1851 to 1860, an unprecedented ‘gold rush’ wrought a profound transformation upon the fledgling state of Victoria. By 1860, Victoria’s population had increased sevenfold and the colony was attracting ‘worldwide fame’ as one of Britain’s wealthiest settlements. However, this colonial prosperity came at a high environmental cost. Whether by land clearing for agriculture or mining, industrial and urban pollution, or the over exploitation of game, fish and timber - colonial progress often meant, as one colonist observed, that ‘every feature of nature [was] annihilated’. Almost all historians have argued that the environmental degradation of Victoria was an inevitable consequence of the widespread antipathy (or antagonism) of Victorians to what they perceived as a foreign and ugly environment. Whilst some colonists called for restraint, ‘the colonial project - to master, develop, and prosper - overwhelmed the faint cry of such sentiments’. This paper will contend that this dominant historical narrative is specious and inconsistent with surviving primary source material. Not only was environmental concern prevalent in Victorian society, popular concern persuaded Parliament to enact considerable environmental legislation throughout the 1860s. Historians have either blithely dismissed or simply ignored the history of this legislation. This is perplexing given that the development of law provides a critical insight into Victorian society’s commitment to - and reasons for - addressing environmental concerns. Thus, this paper examines the three most significant environmental regimes enacted throughout the 1860s: namely, the game, fish and timber statutes. It will be shown that these regimes were primarily justified by utilitarian conservation arguments and, additionally, that aesthetic and moral considerations were vital. The existence and influence of a ‘proto-preservationist philosophy’, which underpinned the enactment of these statutes, disproves the orthodox historical narrative that colonial society was generally apathetic to environmental degradation and that colonists who voiced concerns were ‘insignificant’.Supervisor: Prof Tim Bonyhady
{"title":"The Forgotten Decade: The Legislative Conservation of Game, Fish and Timber in 1860s Victoria","authors":"Tristan Orgill","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2574049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2574049","url":null,"abstract":"Between 1851 to 1860, an unprecedented ‘gold rush’ wrought a profound transformation upon the fledgling state of Victoria. By 1860, Victoria’s population had increased sevenfold and the colony was attracting ‘worldwide fame’ as one of Britain’s wealthiest settlements. However, this colonial prosperity came at a high environmental cost. Whether by land clearing for agriculture or mining, industrial and urban pollution, or the over exploitation of game, fish and timber - colonial progress often meant, as one colonist observed, that ‘every feature of nature [was] annihilated’. Almost all historians have argued that the environmental degradation of Victoria was an inevitable consequence of the widespread antipathy (or antagonism) of Victorians to what they perceived as a foreign and ugly environment. Whilst some colonists called for restraint, ‘the colonial project - to master, develop, and prosper - overwhelmed the faint cry of such sentiments’. This paper will contend that this dominant historical narrative is specious and inconsistent with surviving primary source material. Not only was environmental concern prevalent in Victorian society, popular concern persuaded Parliament to enact considerable environmental legislation throughout the 1860s. Historians have either blithely dismissed or simply ignored the history of this legislation. This is perplexing given that the development of law provides a critical insight into Victorian society’s commitment to - and reasons for - addressing environmental concerns. Thus, this paper examines the three most significant environmental regimes enacted throughout the 1860s: namely, the game, fish and timber statutes. It will be shown that these regimes were primarily justified by utilitarian conservation arguments and, additionally, that aesthetic and moral considerations were vital. The existence and influence of a ‘proto-preservationist philosophy’, which underpinned the enactment of these statutes, disproves the orthodox historical narrative that colonial society was generally apathetic to environmental degradation and that colonists who voiced concerns were ‘insignificant’.Supervisor: Prof Tim Bonyhady","PeriodicalId":445990,"journal":{"name":"Protected Lands Law & Policy eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131224298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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