25 January 2016

2002 Conference

IVth International Conference

Property rights, economics and environment: Costal Zone
June 2002

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France

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Conference ProceedingsGeneral TopicSelected PapersGeneral ReportPatronage CommitteeContributorsAssociated Institutions

The The proceedings were published in French but some papers are available in English (see Selected Papers tab).

Actes-2002 This book presents and evaluates theories and actual experiments in the field of property rights and economic instruments which, beyond command and control, are likely to help solving the pressing issues of sustainable management of the Coastal Zone.

It is common place to declare that the coastal zone has long been favored for human settlement whether industry, housing, recreation or transportation. This is true not only around the Mediterranean sea but also as a worldwide phenomenon.

This narrow stretch of land and water is under considerable pressure and subject to competition between private and government agencies for many uses too often incompatible. This situation has been clear for many decades and the proposed solutions were of “command and control” type i.e. planning and zoning. As a matter of fact these regulatory tools appear less and less efficient to deal with complex issues of land and water protection and management.

In the 70’s it progressively appeared that more efficient tools were required such as land use control by government acquisition. Accordingly were created the Conservatoire du Littoral in France, the California Coastal Conservancy…

Parallel to public initiatives, nature conservation associations began to look upon the coastal zone: The National Trust in U.K. (through Operation Neptune), The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land in the U.S. redirected their efforts to coastal sensitive areas. In addition the Land Trust Alliance federated some hundred local private or associative coastal land trusts, not to mention the Dutch Natuurmonumenten, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the French Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux and numerous partners of Eurosites…

In order to manage game, hunting associations banded together in North America to set up Ducks Unlimited or in France Fondation des Habitats pour la Faune Sauvage.

It is worthwhile to pinpoint the fact that these associations imagined new legal devices using extensively voluntary agreements such as covenants, easements transfer of development rights…instead of full fee acquisition.

In all cases, whether public, private, or through combined efforts, property rights are being defined and modified to accomplish conservation goals.

Most specialists think that the conditions of a coastal zone version of Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” are present:“ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own interest in a society that believes in the freedom of Commons. Freedom in a Common brings ruin to all” If we consider the coastal zone as a common good we must find new ways to preserve and manage it since implementing strict regulations and open access is simply not feasible for practical, ecological and political reasons.

We must explore to what extent property rights (public, common and private) and economic tools such as transfer of development rights, compensation and betterment devices, easements, covenants, concessions, negotiable permits, land and inheritance taxes…could combine and meet the objectives of sustainable development by public/private joint collaboration.

As a matter of fact a prerequisite to successful achievements is the active participation of millions of stakeholders (farmers, landowners, local governments, shellfish farmers, land trusts, harbor authorities,…). Beyond regulation of private and public land and water arises the tricky issues of management and responsibility for pollution and nuisance.

Dealing both with concepts and successful experiments the Conference aimed at imagining new institutional arrangements and tools in order to protect and manage the coastal areas for the new century.

As for the three past international conferences, we shall present and evaluate theories and actual experiments in the field of property rights and economic instrument likely to help solving the pressing issues of sustainable management of the Coastal Zone.
Top world specialists (mainly lawyers and economists), officials, conservation leaders, NGO will participate as well as land owners, land trusts, developpers, hunting and shooting associations ,in addition with farming, oil companies, port authorities, aquaculture, banking interests…

Facts

It is common place to declare that the coastal zone has long been favored for human settlement whether industry, housing, recreation or transportation . This is true not only around the Mediterranean sea but also as a worldwide phenomenon.
This narrow stretcht of land and water is under considerable pressure and subject to competition between private and government agencies for many uses too often incompatible. This situation has been clear for many decades and the proposed solutions were of “command and control” type i.e. planning and zoning. As a matter of fact these regulatory tools appear less and less efficient to deal with complex issues of land and water protection and management.
In the 70’s it progressively appeared that more efficient tools were required such as land use control by government acquisition. Accordingly were created the Conservatoire du Littoral in France, the California Coastal Conservancy…
Parallel to public initiatives, nature conservation associations began to look upon the coastal zone: The National Trust in U.K. (through Operation Neptune), The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land in the U.S. redirected their efforts to coastal sensitive areas. In addition the Land Trust Alliance federated some hundred local private or associative coastal land trusts, not to mention the Dutch Natuurmonumentum, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the French Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux…
In order to manage game, hunting associations banded together in North America to set up Ducks Unlimited or in France Fondation des Habitats pour la Faune Sauvage. It is worthwhile to pinpoint the fact that these associations imagined new legal devices using extensively voluntary agreements such as covenants and easements instead of full fee acquisition.
In all cases, whether public, private, or through combined efforts, property rights are being defined and modified to accomplish conservation goals.
Most specialists think that the conditions of a coastal zone version of Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” are present:”ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own interest in a society that believes in the freedom of Commons. Freedom in a Common brings ruin to all”. If we consider the coastal zone as a common good we must find new ways to preserve and manage it since implementing strict regulations of free access is simply not feasible for practical and political reasons.

Towards new solutions

We must explore to what extent property rights (public,common and private) and economic tools such as transfer of development rights, compensation and betterment devices, easements, covenants, concessions, negotiable permits, land and inheritance taxes…could combine and meet the objectives of sustainable development by public/private joint collaboration.
As a matter of fact a prerequisite to successful achievements is the active participation of millions of stakeholders (farmers, landowners, local governments, shellfish farmers, land trusts, harbor authorities,…). Beyond regulation of private and public land and water arises the tricky issues of management and responsibility for pollution and nuisance.
Dealing both with concepts and successful experiments the Conference will aim at evolving new institutional arrangements and tools in order to protect and manage the coastal areas for the new century.
Unlike many colloquia and research project which for the last decades have dealt with “integrated coastal zone management” our thought processes will be limited, pragmatic, and prospective as basic stakeholders and decision makers meet in order to find implementation instruments. Tools and means are more important than long agreed objective.

By  Henri Lamotte, General Reporter


Towards a Sustainable Development for Coastal Resources in the 21st Century

THE BOTTOM-LINE

The coastline is experiencing a growing physical, human and economic pressure – a fact evidenced by Catherine Bersani, author of the Coastline Act Report. The coastline economic growth potential stirs up a number of use conflicts:

· Conflicts between professional and recreational users;
· Conflicts between various professional activities (farmers v. shell-fish breeders);
· Conflicts between riparian owners, tourists and coastline operators (e.g., hotel managers, beach operators,…)
· Conflicts between environmentalists and territorial users.

Governmental authorities usually design regulatory solutions to these different conflicts.

This conference has attempted to prove this approach is deficient. Other complementary and alternative solutions merit our attention; such alternatives are based on closer and more balanced partnerships between governmental authorities and private stakeholders and, more importantly, among private stakeholders themselves. Cooperation may involve the revival of instruments such as the recognition of property rights on the one hand, and the development of contractual relationships between equal partners, on the other hand.

This conference has provided a number of national and international experiments (e.g., the Chausey Islands – France, the Caribbean Islands, Tanzania, Norway and Iceland,…).

The diversity of lectures opens four perspectives for thought and debates.

PERSPECTIVES FOR THOUGHT

· Role assigned to seacoast conservation agencies, private operators and conservation easement

American “Land Trusts”, alike the British National Land Trust, are interesting examples. These bodies are non-profit making organizations and benefit from tax relief measures thanks to which they can allocate huge amounts of money to the preservation of the Nature without despoiling the owners. In most cases, Land Trusts enter into fair and sustainable contracts with owners (e.g., contracts based environmental easements) whereby the latter are bound to manage properly their lands and receive a financial compensation in return.
Land Trusts can, if needed, buy these lands but will have to pay the market price for them.
New programs have been initiated in France, and notably the National Foundation for the Preservation of Habitats and the Wildlife. This foundation was established in 1979 by the National Hunter Association; the foundation intends to buy out outstanding natural territories in order to “safeguard” them (land control) and to confer the management upon local federations.
Other initiatives should surface alike that which has been announced by the “Salins-du-Midi” company during this conference; The “Salins-du-Midi” company, a French salt-producing company, has just created the “Living Coastline” Association, an association comprising a number of private shoreline areas owners and designed to guarantee a sustainable development for coastal areas where everybody’s interests are taken into account.

Perpetuating and expanding such private conservation agencies will require a fiscal revision.

· The renewal of public authorities’ approach to coastline management matters: a renewal resulting from contractual relationships designed to promote environmental objectives

Public authorities regard the development of contractual relationships as a cultural revolution disrupting with the traditional government intervention means (e.g., direct appropriation, regulation, and taxation).

The French case can be illustrated with the two following examples. On the one hand, public authorities have entered into Territorial Management Contracts with farming operators by 1999. Such contracts are entered voluntarily and permit to reconcile environmental preservation with agricultural activities. They also aim at resolving use conflicts between professionals (e.g., between cattle-breeders and shell-breeders in Etel, Brittany). The Natura 2000 Program is another example whose implementation has stirred up a number of criticisms, among which:
· Lack of a real dialogue between territories operators (e.g., farmers, foresters, hunters, fishermen…) and public authorities during the perimeters establishment stage;
· Lack of a scientific assessment program;
· Vagueness of the targeted objectives and future constraints;
· Lack of a compensation system for owners.

How and to which extent can management be based on more balanced dialogue and contractualization procedures? This is one the questions which has surfaced with the Natura 2000 Program.

· Risks of ambiguity regarding public authorities’ responsibilities and roles

Public authorities are, currently, in charge of the three following missions:
· Regulation;
· Assessment;
· Acquisitions.

Nevertheless, is it fair and economically-efficient that the Coastline conservation agency, a public department under the Ministry for the Environment and Sustainable Development, assigns to only one operator the following powers:
· The power to influence the price for commodities;
· The power to make their prices;
· The power to compel owners to give up their rights.

Practically speaking, such a concentration of responsibilities is not efficient since the conservation agency does not manage the acquired territories; furthermore, such a concentration is not fair as well since owners are despoiled from their rights.

In the future, the government will not be able to bear all of these functions and will have to focus on one of them (the regulatory function, for instance).

· The compensation for public easements, specifically development easements

Debates have attested the extreme diversity of national and international cases for compensation.

In the United States, courts rely on the “taking” procedure to provide large compensations (this procedure cannot be properly described with only a few words).

In France, the Land Development Code has established a principle of non-compensation for land development easements. From an economist point of view, this non-compensation principle satisfies neither fairness nor efficiency criteria and generates two side-effects: on the one hand, over-regulation will occur; on the other hand, the development of alternatives to public easements will be hindered (e.g., contractual easements with private owners providing for a fair compensation).

Conclusions

The present debates raise a number of questions:
· Are there any limits?
· Should we set some limits? Which price should we pay? A solution might consist in revamping a land tax properly designed to extract the land rent.
· Which roles do private seacoast conservation agencies and easements have in countries where these institutions are insufficiently developed?
· Will public authorities develop contract-based solutions for managing coastal areas?
· Insofar as any confusion in public authorities’ roles and functions generates inefficiencies and despoliation, how could we prevent such a confusion between regulatory, assessment and appropriation functions that government bears in coastal areas management matters?
· To which extent should public easements, and particularly land development easements, open an action for compensation?

The evolution of the European Court of Human Rights’ case-law is addressing these questions but provides no ready-made solution.

Under the Patronage of

de l’UNESCO,
de Michel BARNIER, Membre de la Commission Européenne
et de Walter SHWIMMER, Secrétaire Général du Conseil de l’Europe

Yves COCHET, Ministre de l’Aménagement du territoire et de l’Environnement
Jean GLAVANY, Ministre de l’Agriculture et de la Pêche
Christine LAZERGES, Présidente du COnservatoire du Littoral

Members

Jean Hocker, présidente du Land Trust Alliance
Catherine Bersani, Conseil Général des Ponts et Chaussées
Serge Antoine, Président du Comité 21
Jean François Saglio, président d’honneur de l’IFEN
Jean-François Minster, Président Directeur Général,de l’IFREMER
Pierre Delaporte, président d’Espaces pour Demain
Karl Grotenfelt, président de European Landowners Organisation
Michel Vauzelle, président de la Région Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur
Jean Claude Gaudin, maire de Marseille
Jean Noël Guérini, président du Conseil Général des Bouches du Rhône
Maryse Joissains, maire d’Aix en Provence
Louis Le Pensec, Sénateur, Ancien Ministre de l’Agriculture et de la Pêche
Esperanza Aguirre, ancien ministre, Présidente de Instituto de Ecologia y Mercado
Pierre Aguiton, président de Rivages de France
Paul Roncière, Secrétaire Général à la Mer auprès du Premier Ministre
Gilbert Simon, directeur général du Conseil Supérieur de la Pêche
Didier Quentin, président de l’Association Nationale des Elus du Littoral
Gérard Tendron, directeur de l’Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage
Jacques Bourdon, président de l’Université Aix-Marseille III
Henri Germain Delauze, président de COMEX
Stephen R. Edwards, directeur du programme socio-économique de l’UICN
Charles-Henri de Ponchalon, président de la Fédération Nationale des Chasseurs
Gérard Dumonteil, président du directoire des Salins-Europe
Jean-François Colomer, président de la Société de Agriculeurs de France

ANTOINE Philippe, SCI des îles de Chausey,
ARNAUDUC Jean-Pierre, Chasseurs de France
BALLU ROUSSEAU Geneviève, Ministère de l’Environnement,
BALOSSIER Jacques, Salins du Midi,
BANN Eric and COOPER Andrew, Coastal studies Research Group (Ulster),
BASRAOUI, Ministère Equipement (Maroc),
BATE Roger, Institute of Economic Affairs (Londres),
BAZIN Patrick, Ministère de l’Agriculture,
BECKER Pierre, GEOCEAN,
BELTRAME Pierre, Université. Aix Marseille,
BENEST Gilles, France Nature Environnement ,
BERSANI Catherine, Conseil Général des Ponts et Chaussées ,
BIGLIONE Franck , Université d’Aix-Marseille,
BLANCHET Dominique, Université de Guyanne et Antilles,
BOISSERY Pierre, Agence de l’Eau RMC,
BOUGEANT Pierre, Conservatoire du Littoral,
BOUIN Frédéric, CRIDEAU (Limoges),
CECCALDI Hubert-Jean, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes,
CENTI Jean-Pierre, Université d’Aix-Marseille ,
CESAR Herman, Coral Reef Alliance (NL),
CHARLEZ Annie, Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage,
CLAMAGIRAN Etienne, Architecte,
COOPER Andrew, Coastal Studies Reaserch Group (Irlande du Nord)
CREPIEUX Didier, Coordination Nationale Natura,
DALBIN Jean-Philippe, Université Aix-Marseille,
DAVID Valérie, Université. Aix Marseille,
DE ALESSI Michael, Consultant (San Francisco),
DEHEZ Geoffrey, Université de Bordeaux IV,
DEJEANT-PONS Maguelonne, Conseil de l’Europe,
DELOGU Orlando, University of Maine,
DESTANDEAU François, CEMAGREF – Bordeaux,
DUMASHIE Diane, ARICS, (GB),
DUMONTEIL Gérard, Salins Europe,
ESCAILLE Thierry (de l’) European Landowners Organisation (Bruxelles),
FALQUE Max, délégué général,
GERARD Bernard, Conservatoire du Littoral (Rochefort),
GIRARDIN Monique, Association Nouvelle Calédonie,
GIRAUDEL Catherine, CRIDEAU (Limoges),
GISSURARSON Hannes, Université d’Islande,
GLEIZES Jean-Marie, Ministère de l’Environnement,
GODEL Denis, Association Port Miou pour tous,
HENOCQUE Yves, IFREMER,
HOCKER Jean, Land Trust Alliance (Washington),
HOSTIOU René, Université de Nantes,
HROUCH Martine, Ministère de la pêche (Maroc),
JEANSON Paul, Marcanterra,
JONCKHEERE (de) Sophie, European Landowners Organisation,
LAMOTTE Henri, Ministère des Finances ,
LEGUE-DUPONT Pascale, Anthropologue ,
LESCAULT Jacques, Petites Iles de France,
LONGWORTH-KRAFFT John, National Trust of England and Wales,
LUNDIN Carl Gustav, IUCN,
MARTEAU Stéphane, Architecte,
MAYO-ANDA Gerthie, UNESCO Philippines,
MUEHLIG-HOFFMAN Annette, UNESCO,
PARAVY Jean-Claude, Ministère de l’Equipement,
PAZ Olivier, Rivages de France,
PERRON Daniel, Société des Agriculteurs de France,
POULAIN France, Institut Français d’Urbanisme,
REBUFAT Geneviève, Avocat (Marseille),
REMOND-GOUILLOUD Martine, Université de Paris,
RENARD Vincent, CNRS,
RIEDMILLER Sibylle, UNESCO Tanzanie,
SANDBERG Audun, Bodo University (Norvège),
SAYER Michael, Friends of Countryside,
SCHMIDT Frederik, Université de Copenhague,
SIMON Patrick, Avocat (Paris) ,
TRAPITZINE Richard, Consultant, Etudes Foncières,
TROOST Dirk UNESCO,
TRUCHET Catherine, Petites Iles de France,
VICENTE Nardo, Université Aix-Marseille III,
YAGI Hiroki, Otaru University of Commerce (Japon).

Agences de l’Eau
Association Nationale des Elus du Littoral
Association des Etudiants de Provence
Banque Modiale
CEDEM (Rennes)
Centre International de Droit Comparé de L’environnement (Limoges)
Center for Private Conservation (Etats-Unis)
COMEX Group (Marseille)
Commission Européenne
Competitive Entreprise Institute (Washington)
Conseil de l’Europe
Conseil Général des Bouches du Rhône
Conseil Supérieur de la Pêche
Conservatoire du Littoral
Country Landowners Association (GB)
English Nature
CRIDEAU Limoges
Environment Probe (Canada)
Espaces pour Demain
Etudes Foncières
European Landowners Organisation(Bruxelles)
Eurosites
Faculté d’Economie Appliquée
Fédération des Associations de Chasseurs
Fédération Nationale des Chasseurs
Fondation José Maria Blanc
Géocean
IFREMER
Institute of Economic Affairs (Londres)
Instituto de Ecologia y Mercado(Madrid)
International Association for the Study of Common Property
Land Trust Alliance, (Etats-Unis)
Ministère de l’Agriculture et de la Pêche(DERF)
Ministère de l’aménagement du Territoire et de l’Environnement, (DNP)
Ministère de l’Equipement
Mission interministérielle d’aménagement du littoral
Office de la Mer de Marseille
Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage
Petites îles de Frances
Plan Bleu
Political Economy Research Center
Région Provence Côte d’Azur
Rivages de France
Salins du Midi
Secrétariat Général à la Mer
Société des Agriculteurs de France
Total Fina Elf
UICN / IUCN
UNESCO
Université d’Aix-Marseille
Ville d’Aix en Provence
Ville de Marseille…