Rural Rentierism and the Financial Enclosure of Maine's Open Lands Tradition

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3775752
AutoresKelly Kay (0000-0003-1824-2617, University of California, Los Angeles, autor correspondente)
Ano2017
Volume107
Fascículo6
Páginas1407-1423
Data de publicação2017-11-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAnnals of the American Association of Geographers (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2469-4452 • E-ISSN: 2469-4460
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/24694452.2017.1328305
OpenAlexW2732230820
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas31
Referências citadas31

This article looks at the changing nature of property access regimes in northeastern Maine. The state's unique "open lands" tradition has come under threat as a result of the large-scale restructuring of the timber industry from vertically integrated forest products companies toward individual and institutional investor-owners. Using a large conservation project in the town of Grand Lake Stream as a case study, I argue that new investor-owners have been able to generate profits by enclosing long-standing common access regimes and commanding monopoly rent payments. After reviewing literatures on rent, enclosure, and the commodification of nature, I examine two prominent examples of this process of rent extraction through the enclosure of common access regimes: lease lots and working forest conservation easements. The article concludes arguing for regulatory intervention, as well as the need for more concrete case studies on the impacts of financial investment on the biophysical environment

Commodification · Easement · Investment · Lease · Restructuring · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Forest Management and Policy