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Breaking the bundle of rights: Conservation easements and the legal geographies of individuating nature

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  • Kelly Kay

Abstract

This paper bridges critical legal geography and geographical work on neoliberal natures to illustrate the vital role that US law has played in reimagining the values of nature as divisible from their supporting contexts and the spatial outcomes of this “individuation.†The development and widespread use of conservation easements by nonprofit land trust groups serves as a precedent-setting case study. I review the two major pieces of enabling legislation: the Uniform Conservation Easement Act, and the addition of Section 170(h) to the federal tax code, to argue that these legal changes mark a pivotal moment of reregulation that has been significant for regularizing the separation of conservation values from their socio-ecological contexts. Finally, I offer three examples of the spatial manifestations of the legal foundations of conservation easements: shifting geographies of conservation prompted by highest and best use valuation and tax deductibility, an altered public/private divide in protected areas, and the creation of new spaces of accumulation, through the use of easement law by entrepreneurial forest carbon firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Kelly Kay, 2016. "Breaking the bundle of rights: Conservation easements and the legal geographies of individuating nature," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(3), pages 504-522, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:48:y:2016:i:3:p:504-522
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X15609318
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Eleanor Andrews & James McCarthy, 2014. "Scale, shale, and the state: political ecologies and legal geographies of shale gas development in Pennsylvania," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 4(1), pages 7-16, March.
    2. Adam G. Bumpus & Diana M. Liverman, 2008. "Accumulation by Decarbonization and the Governance of Carbon Offsets," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 84(2), pages 127-155, April.
    3. Adam G. Bumpus & Diana M. Liverman, 2008. "Accumulation by Decarbonization and the Governance of Carbon Offsets," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 84(2), pages 127-155, April.
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    1. Catherine Boone, 2017. "Legal empowerment of the poor through property rights reform: Tensions and trade-offs of land registration and titling in sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 037, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

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