Nobel Prize winners at Lincoln Institute property rights conference

For immediate release
Contact: Anthony Flint 617-503-2116

   CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (September 16, 2010) – Nobel Prize winners Douglass C. North, Elinor Ostrom, and Thomas C. Schelling will be among the speakers at a two-day conference on property rights and the management of natural resources such as fisheries, forests, mines, and water, sponsored and organized by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in conjunction with Elinor Ostrom and Daniel H. Cole.
   The Evolution of Property Rights Related to Land and Natural Resources September 20-21 at the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, will bring together prominent scholars in economics, political science, history, and law to examine property systems. As concern for dwindling natural resources and environmental regulations increases, the conference discusses lessons and successful property management models ranging from the 19th century California Gold Rush to current air, wildlife, and land approaches relevant to the management of climate change.
    Over the past several years, the academic literature about property rights in land and natural resources has often emphasized the “tragedy of the commons” and failed to account for cases in which stakeholders successfully manage resources such as fisheries, forests, mines, and water. Building on Professor Ostrom’s path breaking work showing that collective action can lead to responsible management of common resources, the conference includes presentations on how various property systems—particularly those that are mainly self-governing—have been applied to and affected the use of natural resources.
   Douglass C. North will speak at the preconference dinner on Sunday, September 19 on issues related to institutions and property rights. In a keynote address, Thráinn Eggertsson will review how the assumptions of costly information and rational politics generate useful tools for exploring the logic of institutions and their changes, using case studies from Iceland.  He will also discuss new directions for the economics of institutions, with an example of the evolution of Iceland’s fisheries regulations.
    Elinor Ostrom and Daniel H. Cole will open session presentations by introducing the idea of moving beyond simplistic models of property systems to theories that better account for the complexities and contingencies of actual resource governance regimes.  More importantly they advocate that the design of these regimes can be informed by comparative analyses of property institutions operating within larger social-ecological systems.
   Other presentations include:

REVISITING THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH

Chair:    Lee Anne Fennell, Chicago Law School

GOLD RUSH LEGACY: AMERICAN MINERALS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY 
Speakers: Karen Clay, Carnegie-Mellon University, and Gavin Wright, Stanford University
Discussant:  Peter Z. Grossman, Butler University
        
GOLD RUSHES ARE ALL THE SAME: LABOR RULES THE DIGGING
 Speaker:    Andrea McDowell, Seton Hall Law School
 Discussant:    Mark T. Kanazawa, Carleton College

AIR

Chair:   Thomas C. Schelling, University of Maryland

ACCESS AND USE REGULATIONS AS PROPERTY: THE CASE OF THE U.S. CLEAN AIR ACT
Speaker:   Daniel H. Cole, Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis
Discussant:    Wallace E. Oates, University of Maryland    

RIGHTS TO POLLUTE: ASSESSMENT OF TRADABLE PERMITS FOR AIR POLLUTION
Speaker:   Nives Dolšak, University of Washington, Bethell
Discussant:  Shi-Ling Hsu, University of British Columbia Law School
   
WILDLIFE

Chair:    James A. Wilson, University of Maine

WHO OWNS ENDANGERED SPECIES?
Speaker: Jason F. Shogren, University of Wyoming
Discussant:    Colin W. Clark, University of British Columbia

ENCLOSING THE FISHERY COMMONS: FROM INDIVIDUALS TO COMMUNITIES
Speaker:   Bonnie J. McCay, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 
Discussant:   Anthony D. Scott, University of British Columbia

LAND AND WATER 

Chair:   Vicki Been, New York University

THE EVOLUTION OF ZONING SINCE THE 1980S: THE PERSISTENCE OF LOCALISM
Speaker:   William A. Fischel, Dartmouth College
Discussant:   Robert C. Ellickson, Yale Law School  

REFERENCE STATES, VALUATION DISPARITIES AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ENTITLEMENT IN REAL PROPERTY AMONG NATIVE AMERICANS 
Speakers:   C. Leigh Anderson and Richard Zerbe, University of Washington
Discussant:    John A. Baden, Foundation for Research in Economics and The Environment

PLAYING BY DIFFERENT RULES?  PROPERTY RIGHTS IN LAND AND WATER 
Speaker:   Richard A. Epstein, University of Chicago Law School
Discussant:    Henry E. Smith, Harvard Law School

LAND AND WATER (cont’d)

Chair:    David H. Getches, University of Colorado

A POLITICAL ANALYSIS OF PROPERTY RIGHTS
Speaker:   William Blomquist, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Discussant:   Edella Schlager, University of Arizona

WATER RIGHTS AND MARKETS IN U.S. SEMI ARID WEST: EFFICIENCY AND EQUITY ISSUES
Speaker:   Gary D. Libecap, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Discussant:    Lee J. Alston, University of Colorado at Boulder
   
GLOBAL COMMONS ISSUES

Chair:    Scott Barrett, Columbia University

CLIMATE CHANGE: THE ULTIMATE "TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS"?
Speaker:    Jouni Paavola, Leeds University
Discussant:    V. Kerry Smith, Arizona State University

OCEANS AS A GLOBAL COMMONS
Speaker:   Katrina M. Wyman, New York University
Discussant:    Richard A. Barnes, University of Hull

   Media invited to attend. Contact: Anthony Flint at anthony.flint@lincolninst.edu.
   The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation, and taxation of land. Providing high-quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy.

 
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James Levitt joins Lincoln Institute as fellow

   CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (July 12, 2010) – James N. Levitt, an expert in land conservation, climate change adaptation strategies, and conservation finance, has joined the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy as a fellow. The immediate focus of his work will be large landscape conservation.
   "This is a subject of emerging interest across the land, water and biodiversity conservation communities,” said Levitt, who also serves as director of the Program on Conservation Innovation at The Harvard Forest, and a research fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School.
   “Public, private and non-profit practitioners and policymakers in the field are increasingly interested in showing that, by collaborating across parcel, sector, jurisdictional, and even national boundaries, they can achieve lasting, measurable conservation outcomes -- outcomes that protect biodiversity, provide ecosystem services, produce commodities sustainably, promote human health, and enhance treasured amenities.”
   In joining the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute, Levitt will be collaborating with several of the institute’s joint venture partners, including colleagues at the University of Montana's Center for Natural Resource and Environmental Policy, the Sonoran Institute, and the Regional Plan Association. This group has already done significant work on the subject, culminating most recently in the Policy Focus Report Large Landscape Conservation: A Strategic Framework for Policy and Action.
   That report, released in June, details grassroots and collaborative strategies for managing large ecosystems, forest lands, watersheds, and wildlife corridors that involve multiple jurisdictions and ownership. The report, which recommends ways to encourage such efforts and foster innovation going forwarded, coincided with the first “listening sessions,” held in Montana, for President Obama’s Great Outdoors initiative – an effort to build on the legacy of national parks and protected lands for the next century.
   “As continental-scale ribbons of development spread across every continent on earth in the 21st century, we collectively aim to make a significant contribution the advancement of complementary regional conservation areas and corridors that will provide essential natural goods, services and wonders for many, many generations to come," Levitt said.
   In addition to leading the Lincoln Institute’s annual Conservation Leadership Dialogue, Levitt is editor of three books on conservation policy and practice: Conservation Capital in the Americas (Lincoln Institute, in collaboration with the Ash Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University and Island Press, 2010); From Walden to Wall Street: Frontiers of Conservation Finance (Island Press and Lincoln Institute, 2005); and Conservation in the Internet Age: Threats and Opportunities (Island Press, 2002).
   A graduate of Yale College and the Yale School of Management, he has served on the National Advisory Board of the Long-Term Ecological Research program sponsored by the National Science Foundation, and is a past vice chair of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. He currently serves as a director or advisor of QLF/Atlantic Center for the Environment, the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale, and Saving Land (the journal of the Land Trust Alliance. In 2008 he was named by the Yale School of Management as a Donaldson Fellow, an honor given to alumni for career achievements that “exemplify the mission of the School.”  He was also awarded the medallion of Chile’s Chamber of Deputies in recognition of his work to advance land conservation in that nation.
   James Levitt is available as an expert source on land conservation and climate change, by contacting anthony.flint@lincolninst.edu.
   The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation, and taxation of land. Providing high-quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy. 

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Major report on large landscape conservation released

 For immediate release
Contact: Anthony Flint 617-503-2116

   CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (May 28, 2010) – On this Memorial Day Weekend as many Americans head outdoors to open spaces, the nation is reminded about the importance of land conservation. Today the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy released a report highlighting new grassroots and collaborative strategies for managing large areas for the enjoyment of generations to come.
 Large Landscape Conservation: A Strategic Framework for Policy and Action, the latest Policy Focus Report published by the Lincoln Institute, describes regionally based initiatives currently underway in forest lands, ecosystems, watersheds, and wildlife corridors that involve multiple jurisdictions and ownership. The report recommends ways to encourage such efforts and foster innovation going forward.
   Nearly a century after President Theodore Roosevelt expanded the national parks system, a new approach is needed to balance many different stakeholders in large land areas that cross many boundaries, said Lincoln Institute senior fellow Armando Carbonell. “We are in a new era,” he said.
   The report will be available at the first of several “listening sessions” being scheduled by the Obama administration June 2 in Helena, Bozeman, and Missoula, Montana. At the White House Conference on America’s Great Outdoors in April, President Obama announced his interest in new approaches for modern-day land conservation and the importance of reconnecting Americans to parks, forests, and working landscapes.
   Recognizing that the most important land and water issues facing North America—including land use patterns, water management, biodiversity protection, and climate adaptation—require new approaches, several regional groups have come together to focus on land and water issues at the appropriate geographic scale, which almost always transcend the reach of existing jurisdictions and institutions.
    A leading example is the Crown of the Continent Roundtable, a network to unite the more than 100 government agencies, non-government organizations, tribal groups, and place-based partnerships with a stake in the 10-million acre area spanning western Montana across the Canadian border into Alberta. The Crown of the Continent is known as a cultural and ecological crossroads, where plant and animal communities from the Pacific Northwest, eastern prairies, southern Rockies, and boreal forests mingle.
   The common currency in large landscape conservation is regional collaboration—the ability to work across boundaries with people and organizations that have diverse interests yet share a common place, said Matthew McKinney, director of the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at the University of Montana, and lead author of the report. The other co-authors are Lynn Scarlett, former deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of the Interior under President George W. Bush, and Daniel Kemmis, former mayor of Missoula, Montana, and former speaker and minority leader of the Montana House of Representatives.
   The report concludes with the following recommendations to improve the practice and performance of large landscape conservation initiatives:

* Gather and share information. Establish a common, coherent scientific database, and develop an annotated atlas of governance efforts.
* Encourage a network of practitioners to build capacity. Catalyze collaboration through a network similar to the Land Trust Alliance to identify best practices and advocate for policy reforms.
* Establish a national competitive grants program to enable and sustain promising efforts. Facilitate homegrown partnerships, improve coordination among ongoing efforts, and recognize the most promising approaches to large landscape conservation.
* Improve the policy toolkit. Strengthen incentive-based tools for landowner conservation and improve coordination and participation by federal and other governmental agencies.
* Facilitate innovative funding opportunities. Maximize and focus the use of existing federal and state programs and authorities that can be implemented quickly and without significant new funding.

   While there is no single model for large landscape conservation, key guiding principles can be applied to create homegrown solutions for particular places. Successful efforts thus far include:

Freedom to Roam: A coalition of business, government and conservation groups ensuring that wildlife can move, migrate, and adapt under the challenges of habitat fragmentation and a changing climate in North America.

America’s Longleaf Pine Initiative: An ad hoc public-private partnership with a multi-state strategy to restore Longleaf pine forests in the southeast U.S.

Platte River Cooperative Agreement and Implementation Program: A negotiated agreement for managing the river basin in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming, to protect endangered species while allowing recreational water uses to continue.

Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor: A grassroots initiative blessed by Congress to protect the natural and cultural heritage of the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, along the 46-mile run of the river from Worcester, Mass. to Providence, R.I.

Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan: A $7 billion inter-governmental effort for the nation’s most ambitious ecosystem restoration initiative, encompassing an 18,000-square-mile region of subtropical uplands, wetlands, and coral reefs from south of Orlando to the Florida Keys.

Las Cienegas National Conservation Area: A shared decision-making authority authorized by Congress through the Bureau of Land Management and the Sonoita Valley Planning Partnership to manage public lands and resources across a high-desert basin and wildlife corridor across the Southwest and northern Mexico.

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency: The nation’s first interstate land use authority to maintain environmental quality within the 500-square-mile Lake Tahoe Basin spanning Nevada and California, amid private development, tourism, ranching, and logging.

About the Authors
Matthew McKinney is director of the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at the University of Montana. Lynn Scarlett is an independent environmental consultant working on climate change, ecosystem services, water, and landscape-scale conservation. From 2005 to 2009 she served as deputy secretary and chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Daniel Kemmis is a private consultant, working primarily in the natural resource and philanthropy arenas. He is a former mayor of Missoula, Montana, and a former speaker and minority leader of the Montana House of Representatives.

About the Lincoln Institute
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation, and taxation of land. Providing high-quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy.  The work on cross-boundary large landscape conservation has been part of the ongoing joint venture of the Lincoln Institute and the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy.

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Meeting of the Minds 2010 Convenes in Omaha

For immediate release
Contact: Anthony Flint 617-503-2116

   CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (May 25, 2010)  – The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a co-sponsor of the Meeting of the Minds, an annual leadership summit of political, business and nonprofit sector leaders on innovative approaches to sustainability and mobility in cities and regions. 
  “Connecting the Dots: The Innovations We Need for Sustainable Cities”, convenes on June 16-18, 2010, in Omaha, is hosted by Urban Age Institute and the Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities. The aim of the gathering is to highlight locally generated innovations poised to be funded by the federal government, on energy independence, zoning reform, smart mobility, and clean transport.
   Peter Pollock, the Boulder-based Ronald Smith Fellow at the Lincoln Institute, will lead the session “The sustainable city in the sustainable region,” exploring the variety of scales at which sustainability can be viewed and the range of policy alternatives that relate to the development of sustainable cities and regions. The panelists include Peter J. Park, manager of Community Planning and Development for Denver, Robert E. Lang, professor of sociology and director of Brookings Mountain West at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas, and Thomas K. Wright, executive director of the Regional Plan Association of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
   Other sessions will focus on lessons learned from four cities—two American cities and two cities in the Netherlands—grappling with sustainable urban development. Charles Rutheiser, senior fellow in the Anne E. Casey Foundation’s Civic Sites and Initiatives Unit, and Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, will present on the experiences of Baltimore and San Francisco, respectively. Saskia Ruijsink, specialist in urban and regional management at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, will introduce a new short film detailing how Rotterdam and Delft are dealing with climate change.
   Zerofootprint Foundation’s CEO Ron Dembo will showcase the Re-Skinning Awards’ winning projects. Each prize winner demonstrates innovative retrofitting technologies and systems ready to be applied in today’s market. Each winner’s work features replicable solutions which are designed to enhance both the efficiency and livability of the world’s existing housing stock.
Sustainability coordinators from the largest cities in the Midwest will also lead sessions on integrating sustainability into comprehensive plans and the imperative of energy efficiency.  A third session will feature the “Living Labs” scattered around the world’s cities, chaired by Neal Peirce of the Washington Post Writers Group will discuss policy experimentation around the world’s cities in conjunction with the launch of the new news service Citiscope, while Barbara Hewson, chief of the Urban Finance Branch of the United Nations Habitat Programme, will lead a debate on smart financing for affordable housing.
    In association with the first Regional Energy Innovation Summit, convening on June 16 in Omaha, guests of the White House Office of Social Innovation and the Kauffman Foundation with participate in an evening program featuring Howard Buffett, policy advisor in the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, will share findings from the Energy Innovation Summit.
    Other global partners include Toyota, Siemens AG, Cemex, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Urban Land Institute, Jones Lang LaSalle, Gallup, UN-Habitat, UN Global Compact Cities Programmes, Regional Plan Association and Metropolis.

Urban Age Institute
The Urban Age Institute is an independent nonprofit ‘think-and-do tank’ working to support innovators based inside the world’s cities. It publishes Urban Age Magazine and delivers programs around the globe.

Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities
The Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities, based out of Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, engages both the local and international community to promote an integrated approach to sustainability through education, public visioning and partnership.

  The Meeting of the Minds seeks to foster innovation in infrastructure, technology, energy, transport, water, and finance for more livable cities. The gathering has been held in Oakland, Portland, and recently in New York, with a focus on sustainable public finance.

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Innovations in large landscape conservation at White House conference

For immediate release
Contact: Anthony Flint, 617-503-2116

   CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (April 14, 2010) – A group of non-profit leaders will highlight a new, ground-up, collaborative approach for the conservation of large landscapes – ecosystems, watersheds and wildlife corridors that involve multiple jurisdictions and land ownership -- at the White House Conference on America’s Great Outdoors Friday April 16, 2010 in Washington D.C.
   The conference, centered on the challenges, opportunities and innovations surrounding modern-day land conservation and the importance of reconnecting Americans to parks, forests, and working landscapes, will be led by Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, and Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture.
   The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at the University of Montana, The Nature Conservancy, the Sonoran Institute, and the Program on Conservation Innovation at Harvard University are promoting strategies for protecting, managing and funding large landscapes across state and in some cases international boundaries, in community-based collaborations of private landowners, local and regional non-profit organizations, and governmental agencies. Representatives from these organizations have been meeting with senior administration officials in the Interior and Agriculture departments to highlight these “outside the beltway” innovations.
   “A century ago, Teddy Roosevelt held a White House conference that built on our great national parks system. We are now in a new era,” said Armando Carbonell, senior fellow and chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. “Today we recognize that large landscapes don’t fit neatly inside park or forest boundaries -- they spread across states and even nations, and involve multiple agencies and stakeholders. A fresh approach for management and funding reflects the wisdom of grassroots regional collaboration.”
   At the conference, Carbonell, chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute, will cite a leading example of the new approach in land conservation: the Crown of the Continent Roundtable, a network to unite the more than 100 government agencies, non-government organizations, tribal groups, and place-based partnerships with a stake in the 10-million acre area from western Montana spanning the Canadian border into Alberta. The Crown of the Continent is known as a cultural and ecological crossroads, where plant and animal communities from the Pacific Northwest, eastern prairies, southern Rockies, and boreal forests mingle. The roundtable is an ongoing forum that connects individual initiatives across an international boundary.
   Other examples, which will soon be featured in a Lincoln Institute Policy Focus Report, include::

Freedom to Roam: A coalition of business, government and conservation groups ensuring that wildlife can move, migrate, and adapt under the challenges of habitat fragmentation and a changing climate in North America.

America’s Longleaf Pine Initiative: An ad hoc public-private partnership with a multi-state strategy to restore Longleaf pine forests in the southeast U.S.

Platte River Cooperative Agreement and Implementation Program: A negotiated agreement for managing the river basin in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming, to protect endangered species while allowing recreational water uses to continue.

Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor: A grassroots initiative blessed by Congress to protect the natural and cultural heritage of the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, along the 46-mile run of the river from Worcester, Mass. to Providence, R.I.

Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan: A $7 billion inter-governmental effort for the nation’s most ambitious ecosystem restoration initiative, encompassing an 18,000-square-mile region of subtropical uplands, wetlands, and coral reefs from south of Orlando to the Florida Keys.

Las Cienegas National Conservation Area: A shared decision-making authority authorized by Congress through the Bureau of Land Management and the Sonoita Valley Planning Partnership to manage public lands and resources across a high-desert basin and wildlife corridor across the Southwest and northern Mexico.

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency: The nation’s first interstate land use authority to maintain environmental quality within the 500-square-mile Lake Tahoe Basin spanning Nevada and California, amid private development, tourism, ranching, and logging.

These individuals are available for interviews on innovations in land conservation:

Armando Carbonell, senior fellow, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Matthew McKinnney, executive director, Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at the University of Montana, and author, Working Across Boundaries, a guide to regional collaboration with accompanying Web site
Robert Bendick, director of governmental relations, The Nature Conservancy
Luther Propst, executive director, the Sonoran Institute
James Levitt, director, Program on Conservation Innovation at Harvard University, and author, Conservation Capital in the Americas and From Walden to Wall Street, both detailing innovations in conservation finance.

 The White House conference will be a listening exercise; the Obama administration has solicited ideas for the conservation and management of future open spaces to build on the system of national parks, national forests, and other public lands.
   The work on cross-boundary large landscape conservation has been part of the ongoing joint venture of the Lincoln Institute and the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy. In the forthcoming Policy Focus Report, the Lincoln Institute will offer a strategic framework to foster large landscape conservation as one of the most effective ways to address issues related to climate change, biodiversity protection, water management, and land use. Within this strategic framework, the federal government would partner with state and local government, tribes, business, community, and conservation interests to support "bottom-up” approaches to large landscape conservation, while meeting national conservation priorities. 
   Another key component is a menu of options on how to fund large landscape conservation, to integrate existing federal funding programs to catalyze, enable, and sustain large landscape conservation initiatives. The recommendations build on the Lincoln Institute’s longstanding commitment to develop innovative conservation finance strategies.
   The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation, and taxation of land. Providing high-quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy.

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Beijing center talks address shifting ground for U.S. and China

For immediate release
Contact: Anthony Flint 617-503-2116

   CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (April 8, 2010) – The Peking University–Lincoln Institute Center for Urban Development and Land Policy in Beijing hosted lectures on worldwide financial tumult, smart growth, and economic growth models, identifying some common themes for the U.S. and China in urban planning and public finance.
   At “Smart Growth and Economic Growth Models” hosted at the center, on the campus of Peking University on March 12, Gregory K. Ingram, president of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, summarized the recent report Smart Growth Policies, a comprehensive evaluation of statewide smart growth policies that showed the challenges of achieving objectives in containing sprawl, expanding transportation options, and maintaining affordable housing. He noted the importance of regional collaboration, careful policy design, and better evaluation mechanisms to improve the effectiveness of smart growth policies, particularly now that many land use and transportation policies have become part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
   Also at the event, Fu Jun, Dean of the Peking University School of Government, explained the theory behind his recent book Guofuzhidao, which holds that a nation’s wealth is determined by the interplay between the effectiveness of its bureaucracy, which should be based on meritocracy and include strong checks on power, and the efficiency of its markets, which needs to provide personal incentives and property rights. Applying the theory to China’s current development, he identified underdeveloped market institutions that may hamper economic growth.
   At “China and U.S. Economic Recovery: Responses and Challenges in the Face of Financial Crisis” on March 26, Lincoln Institute Fellow Yu-Hung Hong provided the Beijing audience with an overview of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and its implications for local public finance. Municipal governments have turned to non-conventional debt-financing mechanisms, such as asset transfer and asset construction certificates of participation, to offset declining revenues from property taxes and intergovernmental transfers, he said. While there is no ideal fiscal instrument to replace dwindling revenue streams, increasing or adding local sales taxes have typically been the most effective and politically acceptable solution.
   Joyce Man, the director of the center, offered an overview of how expansionary monetary policies and low interest rates designed to stimulate the economy after the 2001 recession later contributed to real estate and credit bubbles.  Comparing U.S. and Chinese policy responses to the credit crisis, she noted China’s use of monetary and fiscal policies similar to those employed by the U.S. in the past to stimulate the economy, and cautioned that continued reliance on such policies may further increase both housing prices and local public debt in China.
   The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation, and taxation of land. Providing high-quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy. The Peking University–Lincoln Institute Center for Urban Development and Land Policy was established in 2007, in association with the institute’s extensive Program on the People’s Republic of China.
  
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Delta Urbanism is focus for Lincoln Institute at APA National Conference

For immediate release
Contact: Anthony Flint 617-503-2116
   
   CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (April 7, 2010)  -- The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a co-sponsor of the American Planning Association National Conference April 10-13 in New Orleans, supporting the Delta Urbanism symposium with the latest analysis on seaside cities confronting the inevitable impacts of climate change.
 The Delta Urbanism symposium seeks to address the future of human settlement, including the world’s most vulnerable populations, in coastal conditions. More than half of the U.S. population lives in the 673 coastal counties, a number that has continued to increase throughout the past two decades, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In China, the world's most populous nation, 60 percent of the country's 1.2 billion people live in coastal provinces. The same holds true in other countries, as people migrate to coastal and delta regions for economic opportunity, access to transportation and recreation, and the amenity of water.
The migration from inland to coastal and delta regions is occurring at a time of great change and uncertainty, according to the APA. Challenges to fostering safe, healthy, and livable communities come from many directions: concerns about energy security; the threat of climate change, sea level rise, and severe weather events; economic restructuring; aging and inadequate infrastructure; and environmental degradation.
   As part of the Delta Urbanism symposium, on Sunday April 11 from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m., Armando Carbonell, chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Form, will moderate “Case Studies of Asian Deltas,” (S484) where experts will discuss challenges and solutions to planning and development in river deltas in Asia. The speakers include Christopher Silver, FAICP, dean, College of Design, Construction and Planning, and professor of urban and regional planning, University of Florida; Lingqian Hu, senior regional planner at Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), specialist in transportation and land use planning, project manager of the Compass Blueprint regional planning program, and formerly associated with the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, who will present a Tsinghua University paper, “Climate Change and Urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta”; and He Canfei, professor at Peking University in Beijing, specializing in industrial geography and planning, and associate director of the Lincoln Institute-Peking University Center for Urban Development and Land Policy, in Beijing.
  Also as part of the symposium, the Lincoln Institute will sponsor “Reducing Climate Impacts in Developing Nations” (S573), in recognition of how urbanization in delta regions and the impacts of climate change are likely to impact primarily marginalized populations. Speakers include Bhuiyan Monwar Alam, assistant professor of planning in the Department of. Geography and Planning at the University of Toledo;  David M. Siegel, FAICP, principal with Otak Inc., a planning and community design firm , and specialist in land use, transportation, growth management, community visioning, public facility, development, and infrastructure; Marni Cappe, principal at M Cappe Consulting, focusing on urban policy and local governance issues, and president of the Canadian Institute of Planners; and Douglas J. Meffert, the Eugenie Schwartz Professor of River & Coastal Studies at Tulane University, deputy director for policy at the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research, and director of Tulane’s RiverSphere, a new initiative fostering green jobs in renewable energy through testing and development of hydrokinetic energy systems in the Mississippi River. Meffert, a recent fellow at the Lincoln Institute, presented on reslience and vulnerable populations at the World Urban Forum last month in Rio de Janeiro.
   The Lincoln Institute will also co-sponsor the traditional Big City Planners session, based on the annual fall gathering of city planners from the largest 30 U.S. cities in Cambridge, with partners the APA and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Big-City Planning Directors' Talk About Immigration and Housing Trends (S466), from 4 to 5:15 p.m. Sunday April 11, will be moderated by Carbonell and William R. Klein, director of APA's Research and Advisory Services. This session features Dowell Myers, professor of Urban Planning and Demography at the University of Southern California, a specialist on demographic change and implications for planning and housing, immigrant integration and assimilation, and advisor to the Census Bureau; Richard Barth, executive director for the New York City Department of City Planning, coordinator for the city’s expanded inclusionary housing program, five-borough economic development strategy and neighborhood preservation program, and zoning plans to encourage appropriate new housing in emerging and built-up neighborhoods; and S. Gail Goldberg, AICP, director of the Los Angeles City Planning Department, and coordinator of major updates to community plans, transit-oriented district plans and several master plans, as well as a streamlined development process and office reorganization.
   The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation, and taxation of land. Providing high-quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy.
  
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Sustainability, spotlight on slums caps World Urban Forum for Lincoln Institute

For immediate release
Contact:  Anthony Flint

  RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (April 1, 2010) – A consortium of Latin American nations, in consultation with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, vowed to address climate change in the urban development of low-income areas, issuing a statement at UN-HABITAT’s Fifth World Urban Forum.
  The Contribution of the Americas to the World Urban Forum, which includes a set of policy recommendations for national and local governments and non-governmental organizations, was drafted after a series of meetings preceding the forum attended by Armando Carbonell, senior fellow and chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Forum at the Lincoln Institute, at the request of the U.S. Department of State.
  The statement capped a series of activities at the World Urban Forum, held March 22-26 in Rio de Janeiro, with some 18,000 registered participants. The theme was “The Right to the City-Bridging the Urban Divide,” based on UN-HABITAT's flagship report, State of the World's Cities 2010-2011, which was released at the event.
  “The goal was to address cities and climate change in the context of the developing southern hemisphere, a particularly challenging task,” said Carbonell. “Much of the urban form there, including Informal settlement, is remarkably energy-efficient now. The challenge is to maintain lower greenhouse gas emissions while advancing quality of life, living standards, and housing adequacy."
  Addressing a gathering at the World Urban Forum that included representatives from the US Department of State and Housing and Urban Development Undersceretary Ron Sims, Carbonell said, “The way of life the West has enjoyed is not something we can withhold, but it should proceed with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions possible. There are rich countries that have very low GHG emissions. We believe it is possible to decouple emissions from development -- a very promising concept, to deal with poverty, and at the same time deal with the problem of global warming.”
  The consortium of nations, led by Brazil and its Ministry of Energy, recommended the use of sustainable technologies in green building, sanitation, and transit, and the embrace of clean and renewable energy resources. The group urged international organizations to provide incentives for energy-efficient housing construction, urban densification wherever possible, and a priority for transit.
  Claudio Acioly, a past Lincoln Insitute fellow and a World Urban Forum organizer, said there was a “missing link between environmental policies and housing policies.” To address this, he said, nations must rethink economic development, the creation of jobs, and the urban form of cities. “This continent has been at the forefront of many initiatives in this area,” he said.
  Martim O. Smolka, senior fellow and co-chair, Department of International Studies, and director of the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean, moderated a gathering of mayors of cities from around the world on the first day, followed by a well-attended training session, “Towards Preventive Housing Policies to Mitigate Informality,” co-sponsored with UN-HABITAT and the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies . The discussion centered on the causes of informality and its persistence in cities, and alternatives to slum formation. Smolka, whose program has developed a major network of researchers and partners in Latin America, was also a panelist in the thematic open debate, “Adequate Access to Shelter (including Basic Social Services),” and a concluding policy discussion “Moving Forward on the Housing Agenda.”
  "Informality is costly to individuals and to society. It should not be glorified or stimulated," Smolka said. "Many of the public policies have been more part of the problem than of the solution. It’s time to take on bold policy alternatives that address the fundamental causes of informality, and enhance affordability of low-income families."
  Solutions include increasing the capacity of low-income families to pay for housing, while at the same time keeping housing and serviced land prices down -- in contrast to titling, special zoning, and site-specific programs. Transportation improvements, land value taxation, value capture (the mobilization of the land value increment resulting from urbanization) and smarter city-wide land use regulations are all unconventional alternatives to be considered, Smolka said.
  Members of the Lincoln Institute delegation saw firsthand improvements in the Tijuacu favela aimed at the provision of clean water and sewage treatment, and efforts to protect risky and environmentally sensitive areas. This essay on slum upgrading initiatives was published in GlobalPost’s Worldview section.
  At-risk urban populations were also a central topic in “Sustainable Urban Responses to Climate Change: Vulnerable Populations,” a networking session with Armando Carbonell, Alberto Harth, president of Civitas in San Salvador, El Salvador and a member of the board of the Lincoln Institute, and Douglas Meffert, professor at Tulane University in New Orleans and deputy director at the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research. This panel explored both adaptation and mitigation responses, including strategies in the location, intensity, and design of new development and redevelopment.
  The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation, and taxation of land. Providing high-quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy.

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Lincoln Institute headed to Rio de Janeiro for World Urban Forum

For immediate release
Contact: Anthony Flint 617-503-2116
 
  CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (March 5, 2010) – Bringing expertise and experience in land use, climate change, and informal settlement, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy will participate in the World Urban Forum 5 in Rio de Janeiro March 22-26.
  The World Urban Forum is a biennial event organized by UN-HABITAT to focus on rapid urbanization worldwide, and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policy. The theme is “The Right to the City-Bridging the Urban Divide,” based on UN-HABITAT's flagship report, State of the World's Cities 2010-2011, which will be launched at the forum.
  At this major conference, the Lincoln Institute’s delegation will be led by Martim O. Smolka, senior fellow and co-chair, Department of International Studies, and director of the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean.  Activities will include training and networking events and an exhibit (E10) featuring a wide array of publications, where visitors will be welcomed throughout the gathering.
   Smolka will be the moderator for a mayors roundtable on the first day, March 22, "The Role of Local Government in Bridging the Urban Divide," which will include the chief executives of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Rosario, Argentina; Lilongwe, Malawi; Malmo, Sweden; and Tongi, Bangladesh.
  The main networking event will be “Sustainable Urban Responses to Climate Change: Vulnerable Populations,” on March 23, featuring Armando Carbonell, senior fellow and chair of the Department of Planning and Urban Form; Alberto Harth, president of Civitas in San Salvador, El Salvador and a member of the board of the Lincoln Institute; and Douglas Meffert, professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, deputy director at the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research, and former Lincoln Institute fellow.
  This roundtable addresses both adaptation and mitigation responses to climate change. The impacts of global warming are potentially devastating, especially for the most vulnerable urban populations in developing countries. Managing the risks caused by extreme weather, including increased flooding, wildfires, drought, and the exacerbation of the urban heat island effect will require climate-conscious city and regional plans that incorporate adaptation strategies in the location, intensity, and design of new development and redevelopment. On the mitigation side, changes in urban density, connectivity, and the mix of land uses will provide opportunities for the planning and design of lower carbon transportation, energy, and building systems.
   Other scheduled sessions will include “Towards Preventive Housing Policies to Mitigate Informality,” a training event sponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, UN-HABITAT, and the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, March 23. The discussion will focus on the causes and persistence of informality in cities and provides a basis for the design of policy responses to mitigate and/or provide viable alternatives to slum formation.
  On March 24, Martim Smolka will be a panelist in the thematic open debate, “Adequate Access to Shelter (including Basic Social Services),” one of the six dialogues around which the World Urban Forum is structured. He will also be a panelist in the concluding dialogue, “Moving Forward on the Housing Agenda.”
  Also on that day, the Lincoln Institute and the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies will host “EQUIURBE,” an interactive game on land management and tools such as land readjustment, compulsory auction and vacant land taxes, in the context of achieving equitable distribution of costs and benefits when dealing with growth areas and land provision for the poor. There will be a networking session in Spanish, Reforma legal y políticas de suelo en Centroamérica, or “Legal reform and land policy: a challenge for sustainable urbanization in Central America,” where members of a network of experts in Central America  will discuss the formulation and implementation of legal reform and land policy for urban development in the region.
  Others in attendance from the Lincoln Institute include Laura Mullahy, Anna Sant'Anna, Anthony Flint, and Kathryn J. Lincoln, chairman of the board of the Lincoln Institute, chief investment officer, and a member of the U.S. delegation. More detail on the sessions and the World Urban Forum is below.
 
Tuesday March 23, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Towards preventive housing policies to mitigate informality
Training event by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, UN-HABITAT and the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
 
This training activity helps participants develop an understanding of the causes and persistence of informality in our cities and provides a basis for the design of policy responses to mitigate and/or provide viable alternatives to slum formation. It will initiate participants in:

-- How to assess housing markets and policy frameworks and the relation between its malfunctioning and the proliferation of informality at different levels
-- How to understand how the housing sector works, mainly housing supply and demand.
-- How to design slum prevention responses to increase diversified & affordable housing opportunities at scale, including the provision of serviced land.
-- How to assess the impact of subsidies at local and national levels on land and housing prices and occupations.
-- How to assess effective payment capacity - once it is considered what ‘informal occupants’ are already paying for land.
 
The event includes: an open discussion on controversial propositions associated with the conventional wisdom regarding informality; a visualized simulation of how market prices are composed in an urbanization project; and a brainstorm on initiatives that contribute to mitigate the formation of new informal settlements, their potential self –funding, the accommodation of stakeholder’s interests, the managerial capabilities required and the supporting legal framework. At the end a list of do’s and dont’s in housing policies and regularization programs is discussed.
 
Tuesday, March 23, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Sustainable urban responses to climate change: vulnerable populations
Networking Event
 
This roundtable addresses both adaptation and mitigation responses to climate change.  The impacts of global warming are potentially devastating, especially for the most vulnerable urban populations in developing countries.   Managing the risks caused by extreme weather, including increased flooding, wildfires, drought, and the exacerbation of the urban heat island effect will require climate-conscious city and regional plans that incorporate adaptation strategies in the location, intensity, and design of new development and redevelopment.  On the mitigation side, urban density, connectivity, and mix of land uses will provide opportunities for the planning and design of lower carbon transportation, energy, and building systems.
 
Objectives:
-- To address the pressing problem of urban populations vulnerable to climate change impacts.
-- To enumerate the practices of cities in achieving adaptation and mitigation goals.
-- To underscore the importance of land policy in planning for climate change.
 
Wednesday, March 24, 1:30  – 3:00 p.m.
Thematic Open Debate - Access to Serviced Land
Wednesday, March 24, 5:30  – 6:30 p.m.
Thematic Concluding Session - Taking Forward the Housing Agenda
 
Martim Smolka, Director of the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean and Co-Chair of the Department of International Studies, is one of the panelists in this thematic Open Debate, corresponding to Dialogue 3: Adequate Access to Shelter (including Basic Social Services), one of the six dialogues around which the Forum is structured. Dr. Smolka will also particulate in the thematic concluding session.
 
Wednesday, March 24, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
EQUIURBE, achieving equitable distribution of costs and benefits
Training by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
 
EQUIURBE is an interactive game on land management and tools such as land readjustment, compulsory auction and vacant land taxes when dealing with growth areas and land provision for the poor.
This training activity provides with basic useful policy responses to deal with conflicting issues that contribute to informal settlements, such as location pattern of land ownership, their rights and obligations, rules of market and government driven plans and projects and limitations of negotiated agreements. It helps participants learn:

-- How to recognize a situation where there will be an unequal distribution of costs and benefits when a growing area is going to be developed in a city.
-- How to design rules that will enable equitable distribution of costs and benefits that help achieving goals of government agencies and land developers while enabling supply of adequate land for the poor.
-- How to link specific land management tools to a principle of equitable distribution of costs and benefits in growing areas.

Wednesday, March 24, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Legal reform and land policy: a challenge for sustainable urbanization in Central America
Networking Event (in Spanish only)
 
Central American countries are characterized by a weak governmental presence in the economy, low taxes and low investments in infrastructure and urban services. Recently, there has been an effort towards the recovery of public capacity to intervene in cities in order to mitigate the existing large regional inequalities. During the last few years a reaction to this situation has tended towards reform or, in some cases, institutionalization of a new legal framework. This event proposes the evaluation of these efforts of public entities to promote cities and territories social and politically more inclusive, economically and environmentally more sustainable.
 
Objectives:
--  Present a benchmarking of Central American national legislation for urban management and discuss the key elements of recent policy initiatives to integrate and promote sustainable urbanization in the region.
--  Compare Central America instruments, regulations and policy for urban land management with Latin American and world tendencies.
--  Strengthening the Central American land policy network to help build knowledge, share ideas and best practices in an effort to advance the battle for sustainable urban development in the region.
 
  The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation, and taxation of land. Providing high-quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy.
 
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Planning for Climate Change in the West

For immediate release
Contact: Anthony Flint 617-503-2116

    SEATTLE (February 3, 2010) – Planners in the Intermountain West must focus on the economic savings of mitigating and adapting to climate change as they tailor federal and state efforts to suit local and regional needs, according to a new report published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
   Planning for Climate Change in the West, by Rebecca Carter and Susan Culp, acknowledges the critical role of local planners in confronting challenges posed by climate change. It also addresses the region’s many political, cultural, demographic, and geographic factors that can be barriers to innovation and effectiveness.
   “State and federal initiatives are important, but mitigation and adaptation will only happen if implemented on the ground, locally,” said Armando Carbonell, senior fellow and chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute.
   “Western planners are emphasizing sustainability or economic efficiency, rather than climate change, in their decisions to manage water supplies, reduce energy consumption, increase transportation efficiency, and protect open space,” said Susan Culp, the report co-author and project manager of Western Lands and Communities, a joint venture of the Sonoran Institute and the Lincoln Institute. She cited a survey of nearly 50 government staff and elected officials in the Intermountain West indicating local skepticism that climate change was a problem in many communities. According to the research, a significant number of residents in these communities are unconvinced that climate change is human-caused and they perceive the issue as global and remote.
   Planning for Climate Change in the West is the latest Policy Focus Report from the Lincoln Institute. It was released today at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference in Seattle, an annual symposium on sustainability and land use that runs Feb. 4-6 and includes presentations by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, and Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The report is available at the exhibition booth of the Lincoln Institute and Sonoran Institute and can be downloaded free here.
   The Intermountain West, primarily arid landscapes that include all or a portion of 11 states west of the Rocky Mountains, is in a unique position when it comes to climate change. Climate change impacts are expected to wreak particular havoc on the region, yet it remains difficult to pursue many mitigation or adaptation strategies for political and cultural reasons.
   The West has been shaped by dramatic fluctuations in its water and energy resources, land use patterns, economy, and a climate known for its extremes. In the decades ahead, the hydrology of the region will become even drier, leading to drought, heat waves, diminished mountain snowpack, earlier snowmelt, catastrophic wildfires, and disruptions to natural processes and wildlife habitat.
   Faced with the challenge of both adapting to these impacts, and contributing to mitigation through the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, planners in western communities should adopt the policy language of cost-effectiveness, the report says. An array of smart growth strategies, with an emphasis on land use and transportation policies, double as climate solutions leading to more resilient communities: building codes and standards, compact mixed-use development, transportation alternatives, distributed and renewable energy, water resource consumption and planning, preservation of open space and agriculture, and mitigation of wildfire impacts. To integrate climate-oriented policies into land use and development agendas, the report encourages planners to:

    * Mobilize the political will.  Focus on sustainability, economic and energy efficiency, and the co-benefits of local actions, rather than politically controversial policies and goals.
    * Recognize local action and citizen participation.  Coordinate state and local activities to address climate change, and use public education about climate change impacts to foster citizen participation and buy-in for local programs.
    * Establish peer community networks on a regional scale.  Develop peer learning networks with guidance from state climate action plans and regional initiatives to help smaller communities learn from each other.
    * Identify resources and a variety of options.  Refer to state climate action plans region-wide for a variety of strategies and ideas that communities can select and apply to their own needs and circumstances.
    * Adapt climate science to local planning needs.  Seek out current information and tools in reports, Web sites, and other resources that can help planners translate available climate science for local use, and develop a baseline level of GHGs as a first step in measuring climate strategies and results.

  Local planners in the Intermountain West face both the challenge and the opportunity to ensure a sustainable future for the region, where the need to respond to potential climate change impacts is particularly urgent. This report presents a regional context and reliable data, case studies, and planner-recommended guidelines for western communities to spur local actions that can minimize those threats.

About the Authors: Rebecca Carter is a foreign service environment officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development being posted to Indonesia. She was formerly the adaptation manager for ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, USA, and climate change analyst for the Sonoran Institute. Susan Culp is a project manager at the Sonoran Institute, responsible for managing research and policy analysis projects associated with Western Lands and Communities, a joint venture with the Lincoln Institute.

About the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy: The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation, and taxation of land. Providing high-quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy.

About Western Lands and Communities and the Sonoran Institute:  Western Lands and Communities is a partnership of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and Sonoran Institute focused on shaping growth, sustaining cities, protecting resources, and empowering communities in the Intermountain West. The Sonoran Institute inspires and enables community decisions and public policies that respect the land and people of western North America.

Planning for Climate Change in the West
Rebecca Carter and Susan Culp
2010 / 56 pages 
ISBN 978-1-55844-203-0
Policy Focus Report

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