Over at the New Scientist Fred Pearce has a nice article, “Local people preserve the environment better than government,” in which he discusses an issue well known to Reason readers – recognzing the property rights of local people protects resources from overexploitation. Pearce is focusing on a new report from the environmentalist think tank, the World Resources Institute. The report, Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change: How Strengthening Community Forest Rights Mitigates Ciimate Change, surveys the literature and finds that private ownership of land by local communities greatly reduces deforestation.
reason.com/blog/2014/08/05/environmentalists-shocked-that-local-peo