This four-and-a-half minute video illustrates the inertial nature of many of our systems that challenge those who want to think differently about a problem. Specifically, it discusses the value of natural capital – assigning a dollar value to a natural resource:
In this case, the individual being interviewed (and the group he represents, the Property and Environment Research Center, or PERC) seeks to raise money to bid against corporate interests in the market for natural resources. The main example provided in the video is in Bozeman, Montana, where the state wanted to sell a forest for logging rights. Instead, the local community, which was opposed to the decision and wanted to preserve the forest, raised sufficient funds ($400,000) to outbid the logging company in the auction and secure the forest for the length of the 25-year lease.
What is interesting about the video, however, is that what happened in Bozeman is illegal in much of the U.S. because, and get this, "federal agencies don't consider conservation to be a beneficial public use." In other words, because traditionally the state looked to corporate interests to cultivate natural resources, various legislatures passed laws that make the purchase of such land for conservation purposes illegal. In other words, the winner of the auction has to develop the land, fell the trees, extract the oil, etc., and cannot elect to preserve the resource, even if they are willing to outbid all other suitors in a competitive bidding process.
Sometimes, reality is stranger than fiction. Certainly, it would be difficult to make this stuff up.
Take care
David
David Chandler
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