Natural Resources Law Commons^™

The Flow Of Power: Addressing Asymmetric Flood Risk In The Upper Valley, Eric Vr Hryniewicz

Geography Undergraduate Senior Theses

Floods are the most damaging natural disasters in America. Land use change in upland watersheds can increase the probability and severity of floods (Bronstert, Niehoff, & Burger, 2002). When watersheds are divided by political and private property boundaries it leads to a misalignment of incentives in which downstream users lack recourse for upstream land use decisions contributing to flood risk. In this thesis, researchers interrogate the attributes of town officials and towns that determine what motivates town governments to act on flooding and what motivates and enables town officials to collaborate on planning and how do they collaborate in practice. …

Master’S Project: Vermont Town Forest Recreation Planning And Community Assistance Program: The Future Of Forest-Based Outdoor Recreation, Taylor M. Luneau

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

The Vermont Town Forest Recreation Planning Community Assistance Program (VTFRP) was a comprehensive community planning process held in ten diverse towns across Vermont. Led by the Urban and Community Forestry Program and the SE Group, the VTFRP helped towns develop a vision for the future management of their forests through open house workshops, site visits, steering committee meetings, and community surveys. The process provided towns with a forest recreation planning toolkit and an individualized action-based forest stewardship and recreation plan. By analyzing data from the community surveys and open house activities across all ten towns, my project considered the recreation …

Developing A Model For Effective Community Development Agreements In The Extractive Industries, John Nikolaou

CMC Senior Theses

Natural resource development has tremendous potential to create inclusive economic growth in countries well-endowed with oil, mineral, and agricultural resources. At the same time, natural resource development can cause negative environmental externalities, and, in several cases, extractives companies can engage in labor abuse.

The intersection of the government’s and the corporation’s interest can lie in Corporate Social Responsibility Projects.This thesis will analyze an alternative model of CSR: community development agreements (CDAs). CDAs are voluntary, or sometimes government mandated, agreements between the project developer and the project affected community that define company commitments to issues such as environmental impact mitigation, benefit …

The Role Of The State, Multinational Oil Companies, International Law & The International Community: Intersection Of Human Rights & Environmental Degradation Climate Change In The 21st Century Caused By Traditional Extractive Practices, The Amazon Rainforest, Indigenous People And Universal Jurisdiction To Resolve The Accountability Issue, Marcela Cabrera Luna

Master's Theses

Local, national and international conventions that protect indigenous sovereignty and their territories, where many of the resources are extracted from by multinational corporations (MNCs) particularly oil, the number one commodity of the world and cause of climate change, continue to be jeopardized because of the lack of a clear international legal framework that can protect them and potentially hold multinationals accountable for their actions. These practices are causing not only environmental issues to the indigenous and surrounding communities, but climate change is in fact, the real human rights issue of the 21^st century and it affects everyone. By using …

Sustainability Policy’S Inherent Dilemmas – Exemplified Via Critical Examination Of The Las Vegas Metropolitan Sustainability Campaign, Kathryn A. Zimmerman

All Master's Theses

In response to a dual problem of critical water scarcity and rapid population growth, leaders of metropolitan Las Vegas implemented a region-wide, internationally marketed sustainability campaign. Preliminary studies found that, while sustainability policy attains its rhetorical goals, solutions initiated not only perpetuate but also purposefully expand the original dual problem to justify continuous water resource acquisitions. To examine this sustainability conundrum constructed by leadership—problem-perpetuation rather than problem-resolution—a critical examination in resource management asked two basic questions: what is being sustained and by what means? Via this inquiry, specific processes by which leaders perpetuate problems can be identified; and, so-informed, new …

California's War Over The Bay-Delta: Historic Failures And Current Battles, Jessica J. Mao

CMC Senior Theses

California has one highly-coveted possession: the Bay-Delta, which is the second largest estuary in the United States. Today, tensions are higher than ever as Southern California continues to grow and demand water from the Delta, agriculture suffers from drought and less-than-promised water allocations, and aquatic life diminishes due to environmentally damaging processes like pumping and exporting of water elsewhere. This paper will examine the historic policies that have shaped how the Delta has been managed, their successes and failures, and current plans in discussion for continuing improvement of the Delta. The Bay-Delta Conservation Plan and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water …