The Gunnison sage-grouse (GUSG) is an iconic species recently proposed for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In Colorado's Upper Gunnison River Basin, ranchers own the majority of water rights and productive river bottoms as well as approximately 30% of the most important GUSG habitat. This project used mixed-methods interviews with 41 ranch owners to document how ranchers perceive the proposed ESA listing and how they plan to respond to a listing decision. Results show that ranchers support on-the-ground GUSG conservation but are concerned about listing implications.

Irrigation in northern China is exposed to declining groundwater resources and institutional issues. As a response, authorities have developed measures that include differentiated resource allocation and charging, collective and individual water rights, a block pricing system, prepaid access to water, and real‐time monitoring of resource and use. This paper analyses this alternative management model and its implications at the farm and system levels, using institutional, technical and economic analyses of case studies from Qingxu County, northern China.

In recent decades, markets have become widely used for environmental resources. Prime examples include water rights where trade enables water to be allocated to the most profitable crops, and allows farmers more flexibility to cope with climatic variability (Bjornlund 2003). Similarly, tradable rights for air pollution minimize the cost of meeting air quality targets (Stavins 1998). The same principles can potentially be widely applied to biodiversity conservation. In this issue, we are fortunate to have a short but diverse series of papers on tradable rights in conservation.

Ever since the oil, financial and food crises of 2008, sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed a marked increase in large-scale investment in agricultural land. The drivers of this investment are varied and include growing food, water and energy insecurity as well as social and economic interests of investors and recipient countries. The shape of these investments and their eventual outcomes are equally influenced by the existing land and water governance systems in the host countries.

Because of the logics of both colonization or de-colonization, the need to counter the anarchy of groundwater use, or the dissemination of global 'best practices' of IWRM, states have often assumed full ownership or custody of groundwater. Regulating groundwater use includes giving drilling and abstraction authorizations/licenses, establishing an inventory of wells and reducing use in existing wells.

Water is absent in the ‘Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of Food Security’ (FAO, 2012). This paper explored whether and how the people-centred approaches and the human rights values that underpin this document can be better applied in the water sector and how more recognition of the land-water interface can support this.

Ever since the oil, financial and food crises of 2008, sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed a marked increase in large-scale investment in agricultural land. The drivers of this investment are varied and include growing food, water and energy insecurity as well as social and economic interests of investors and recipient countries. The shape of these investments and their eventual outcomes are equally influenced by the existing land and water governance systems in the host countries.

Because of the logics of both colonization or de-colonization, the need to counter the anarchy of groundwater use, or the dissemination of global 'best practices' of IWRM, states have often assumed full ownership or custody of groundwater. Regulating groundwater use includes giving drilling and abstraction authorizations/licenses, establishing an inventory of wells and reducing use in existing wells.

Insecure land tenure and property rights are an impediment to the construction of water infrastructure in many developing countries. This paper explores whether alleviating this impediment through a land titling program in rural Peru is associated with improvements in water access. The economics literature on the links between property rights and investment decisions has amassed yet, due to the unique characteristics of water, it is not obvious how water service provision would respond to improvements in land tenure.

Water is absent in the ‘Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of Food Security’ (FAO, 2012). This paper explored whether and how the people-centred approaches and the human rights values that underpin this document can be better applied in the water sector and how more recognition of the land-water interface can support this.