Geography ETDs

Mark Lawler

Publication Date

7-11-2013

Abstract

The Middle Rio Grande Endangered Species Collaborative Program is an interagency, multiple-stakeholder organization, which works to enable cooperative solutions to endangered species issues on New Mexicos Middle Rio Grande. The Program is a product of what some authors describe as a 'new age' of environmental management. This study focuses on how local stakeholders interact with federal and state agencies within the Program to cooperatively invest in institutional changes to solve problems with tools of the 'new age' environmental management paradigm. It evaluates these tools in the context of pitfalls presented by dynamic interactions and an imbedded 'rule of law' regulatory system and culture. It finds that disparities in influence between stakeholders who represent common objectives but disagree upon Program trajectories can diminish buy-in among the less influential parties. Less influential stakeholders in these scenarios may feel greater advantage pursuing litigious alternatives that threaten the longevity of the program. Such threats reinforce the 'rule of law' status quo which enables guaranteed protections to environmental goods or water rights, but falls short of realistic solutions to the problems of the Middle Rio Grande.'

Degree Name

Geography

Department Name

Geography

Level of Degree

Masters

First Committee Member (Chair)

Carr, John

Second Committee Member

Lane, K. Maria

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

Keywords

Institutional Supply, Endangered Species, River Restoration, Collaboration, Adaptive Management

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