Treating Threatened and Endangered Species as a Common-Pool Resource: An Institutional Analysis of Wyoming and Colorado and The Challenges of Wildlife Conservation

Abstract

"With human activity at an all-time high, and rising, the United States and other countries are facing increasing pressure to take more action on behalf of the planet's threatened and endangered species. This paper attempts to look at the wildlife conservation issue as a common-pool resource situation. This context helps us to see the issue from the point of view of the actors; plus it helps us analyze the institutions involved and the institutional incentives that are created. Specifically, this paper analyzes the Endangered Species Act as the working institutional solution for the common-pool resource situation of biodiversity here in the United States. More importantly it analyzes the more intimate level of two states (Wyoming and Colorado) as they endeavor to meet endemic challenges of protecting threatened and endangered species. In doing so I hope to reassert the importance of taking into consideration defining regional characteristics, such as economic conditions, culture, and other influences which create different challenges for even widespread common-pool resource issues. My specific conclusions outline Wyoming and Colorado's institutional diagnostics as associated with biodiversity issues. My general conclusion is the lesson that, often, it is more effective to look for regional and local solutions for problems of global scale."