Free market solutions on Bainbridge.

Stewardship of the land doesn’t require government expenditure when good people are willing and able to exercise their own free will. There are excellent examples close to home.

The Bainbridge Island Land Trust’s mission is to preserve and steward the diverse natural environment of Bainbridge Island for the benefit of all. To achieve this goal, the Bainbridge Island Land Trust acquires interests in land having significant or potentially significant conservation values such as scenic vistas, wetlands, open spaces, tidelands, forest, unique plant and animal habitats and stream and wildlife corridors. We work with private landowners to protect their land using land protection agreements called conservation easements. We also work with a variety of partners to acquire land for parks, trails and public use.

Free market solutions in Washington.

Washington Policy Center (WPC) improves lives of Washington citizens by providing accurate, high-quality research for policymakers, the media and the general public. WPC is an independent, non-partisan, research and education organization located in Seattle, that publishes studies, sponsors events and conferences and educates citizens on public policy issues facing our region. WPC has an annual budget of $1.5 million and a full-time staff of 13 at its office in Seattle and satellite office in Olympia. Its work is regularly covered in the media and WPC analysts are routinely invited to testify before legislative committees. Washington Policy Center focuses on eight core ares of public policy, including development of innovative ways to protect the environment.

Launched in 2003, WPC’s Center for the Environment focuses on free-market solutions to environmental issues. It brings balance to the environmental debate and promotes the concept that human progress and prosperity work in a free economy to protect the environment. It is a resource for Northwest residents concerned about the environment and is a clearing-house for academic research from other think tanks and institutions. The Center for the Environmental offers a unique and innovative perspective on environmental policy. Along with Policy Brief, Policy Notes, Legislative Memos, and Opinion Editorials, the Center also issues a regular monthly publication called “Environmental Watch.”

“It was good to hear your new Center is going to concentrate on economic incentives and free market solutions to our envrionmental problems. Solid analysis and research in this area can make a real contribution to the Northwest.” — Hon. William Ruckleshaus, First Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

Privately protected places.

Free-market Environmentalism

In 1996, Collette Ridgeway, then director of student applications at the Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University, and her husband Scott, set out to view, photograph and document the work of average, land-owning Americans.

Because of our shared interest in both environmentalism and liberty, my husband and I spent a year-long “working honeymoon” crisscrossing the country visiting private nature preserves and documenting their exciting and vitally important story. I focused on the writing, while my husband Scott, a professional fine-art photographer, recorded on film the lands that were quietly being preserved by individuals, conservation organizations, and business enterprises. [snip]

What is Free Market Environmentalism?

Free Market Environmentalism (FME) is an approach to environmental problems that is based on the following tenets:

• Private property rights encourage stewardship of resources.
• Market incentives spur individuals to improve environmental quality.
• Government control and subsidies often degrade the environment.
• Polluters should be liable for the harm they cause to others.

FME has allowed PERC to view problems through a different lens, and as a result, challenge conventional ways of thinking about the environment and spur common-sense solutions such as:

Ecology, liberty & property.

Are free markets and environmental protection compatible?  Is it possible to protect environmental resources without resorting to extensive command-and-control regulation? Ecology, Liberty & Property: A Free Market Environmental Reader answers a resounding yes.  The market institutions of private property, voluntary exchange, common law liability standards, and the rule of law are powerful medicine for environmental ills.  Greater reliance on these institutions can address environmental concerns while preserving individual liberty.  The essays herein, drawn from over fifteen years of CEI’s environmental analysis and policy research, explain the free market approach to environmental concerns in both theory and practice.  The topics covered range from solid waste and wildlife conservation to industrial pollution and biotechnology.

Ecology, Liberty & Property | CEI.