Colorado Environmental Law Journal

I. Introduction The controversial Keystone XL pipeline (“Keystone XL” or “pipeline”), if approved, will have effects for years to come. The potential effects are not only environmental. If the pipeline is permitted and constructed, it will affect the United States’ policy on matters such as whether the nation will support the development of “dirty” tar sands oil in neighboring countries, what other sorts of pipelines the government will allow, what sort of review applications for transboundary pipelines will receive, and after the applications are approved, Continue reading →

I. Introduction The new commercial space market offers the world unprecedented access to space but may also herald unprecedented dangers to the upper atmosphere that could hasten climate change. The launching of satellites, scientific research payloads, and people into space is transitioning from a purely governmental enterprise to an increasingly private industry that receives government contracts.[2] The private sector is assuming the role that governments once held in space activities, particularly in the United States. For instance, private companies including Lockheed Martin[3] and SpaceX[4] have Continue reading →

“[I]f we care for the River, the River will continue to sustain the people.” —The Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Act 2010 I. Introduction Adaptive co-management, an approach to environmental and natural resource management that enables stakeholders to share management responsibility and to learn from their actions, is a promising innovation in managing natural resources under conditions of uncertainty and complexity.[2] While not a panacea, adaptive co-management does hold promise as a means of moving past conflict and towards developing more effective and resilient Continue reading →

Abstract When the collective declines, who manages the collective-owned land? When the socialist state fails, who possesses the state-owned river? This Article concerns the governance of land and natural resources that are still owned by collectives or the state in rural China. No effective community governance has evolved in rural China to fill the authority vacuum left by the dissolution of the people’s commune system. As a result, such land and natural resources have become real commons. In describing these I use the term “transitional Continue reading →

I. Introduction The Huaorani (Waorani) are hunters and gatherers who have lived in the Amazon Rainforest since before written history. Their ancestral lands span some 20,000 square kilometers and include the area now known as Yasuni National Park and Biosphere Reserve in the Republic of Ecuador. Yasuni is world-renowned for carbon rich forests and extraordinary biological diversity and is an important refuge for fresh water dolphins, harpy eagles, black caimans, and other threatened species and regional endemics. The Huaorani are legendary, even among other Indigenous Continue reading →

Abstract This Article begins with an overview of the ecology of the Guarani Aquifer region before turning to the legal and ecological problems it faces. Because the majority of the Guarani Aquifer underlies Brazil (with the rest residing below Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay), the laws and policies of Brazil have a significant managerial impact. Consequently, the Brazilian legal regime forms the focus of the first Part of the Article. The Article then analyzes the international transboundary framework before turning to the recently enacted Agreement on Continue reading →