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19 Pac. McGeorge Global Bus. & Dev. L.J. 13 (2006)
Special Challenges of Transboundary Coordination in Restoring Freshwater Ecosystems

handle is hein.journals/tranl19 and id is 15 raw text is: Special Challenges of Transboundary Coordination in Restoring Freshwater Ecosystems Lee P. Breckenridge* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 13 II. THE TRANSBOUNDARY PROBLEM ............................................................... 14 A. Common Pool Resources and the Tragic Effects of Boundaries ........ 14 B. More Property, or Less?: The Search for New and Better Boundaries.. 18 III. THE COMPLEX GOALS OF FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION ........... 20 A. Configuring Institutions to Match Ecosystems ................................... 20 1. Uncertainty, Nonlinearity, and Unpredictability .......................... 21 2. Multiple Scales, Semi-Autonomy, and Self-Organization ............. 22 3. Ecological Resilience and the Human Role in Ecosystems ....... 22 4. Adaptive Management and Institutional Learning ....................... 23 5. Organizations That Are Nested or Otherwise Linked A cross Scales ............................................................................... 24 B. Freshwater Ecosystems and the Goal of Ecological Restoration ..... 28 1. Freshwater Ecosystems ................................................................ 28 2. The Conundrums of Restoration Initiatives .................................. 30 IV . C ONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 31 I. INTRODUCTION The title for this conference on Transboundary Freshwater Ecosystem Restoration is deceptively compact. Several complex but related issues of institutional design are compressed into that short phrase. First, there is the challenging theme of transboundary coordination. The difficulties of crossing political and property boundaries to achieve coherent ecological goals are longstanding topics of debate in environmental law at both the domestic and international levels. Beyond that central issue, the conference title also raises three more implicit topics for discussion: how do modem understandings of ecosystems affect choices about the configuration of institutions to transcend existing boundaries? Do freshwater resources present special issues or opportunities for insights into means for coordinating wise decisions across boundaries? Finally, does the goal of restoring rather than simply protecting existing resources pose particular problems for efforts to organize ecological decision-making? * Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law; JD 1976, Harvard Law School; BA 1973, Yale University. My thanks to Jason Schaff and Will Fiske of the editorial staff of this law journal.

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