The Natural World

In the early 1950s, the then-new Resources for the Future convened the Mid-Century Conference, where more than 1,500 leaders could “exchange viewpoints on important resource issues that appear to be of continuing significance for at least the next generation.” While the priorities of the 21st century have evolved since then, “important resource issues” remain at the heart of RFF’s research agenda, including how to value and measure the benefits from nature and effectively manage forests, fisheries, water, agricultural resources, and even outer space in an interconnected world.

FEATURES

Managing Water through Innovative Collaboration

Resources magazine: RFF Visiting Scholar Lynn Scarlett explains how network governance can address cross-jurisdictional water management issues in the United States.

Using Transferable Development Rights to Control Land Use

RFF’s Margaret Walls describes the virtues, and the pitfalls, of market-based programs for land conservation and discusses the lessons learned from three decades of a Maryland program.

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PROJECTS

The Outdoor Resources Review Group

ORRG is a private bipartisan panel reviewing conservation, outdoor recreation and related issues in light of changes in the needs of the American public and the resources available to meet those needs.

The World's Forests

A research program led by RFF seeks to devise new ways to accurately gauge four critical attributes of global forests – area, timber volume, biomass, and carbon sequestration.

PUBLICATIONS

Dedicated Funds for Parks: Designing the Right Approach

Margaret Walls

Parks and Recreation magazine | March 2013

Land Use Policies in the United States for Protecting Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Margaret Walls and Anne Riddle

Encyclopedia of Energy, Natural Resource, and Environmental Economics, Vol. 3 | J.F. Shogren, ed. | Amsterdam: Elsevier | 2013

Strategically Placing Green Infrastructure: Cost-Effective Land Conservation in the Floodplain

Kousky, C., S. M. Olmstead, M. A. Walls, and M. Macauley

Environmental Science & Technology | DOI: 10.1021/es303938c

Forest Carbon Economics: What We Know, What We Do Not, and Whether it Matters

Molly K Macauley and Nathan Richardson

Climate Change Economics | December 2012 | Vol. 3, No.4

Terrestrial Fluxes of Sediments and Nutrients to Pacific Coastal Waters and Their Effects on Coastal Carbon Storage Rates

Bergamaschi, Brian A., Richard A. Smith, Michael J. Sauer, and Jhih-Shyang Shih

Baseline and Projected Future Carbon Storage and Greenhouse-Gas Fluxes in Ecosystems of the Western United States | Zhiliang Zhu and B.C. Reed, eds. | Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey | 2012

Paying for State Parks: Evaluating Alternative Approaches for the 21st Century

Margaret A. Walls

RFF Report | January 2013

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