Private Property Is Good For Conservation

"All environmental problems occur in open-access commons -- areas like rivers, airsheds, and fisheries -- that no one owns and no one has a responsibility to protect. Political management has generally been the way we have tried to handle the problems caused by the institution of open-access commons. The CPC is pointing to how private property can effectively deal with environmental problems. "An owner who neglects or harms what he owns is soon out of business and is replaced by somebody better," noted Smith."