Via The Wall Street Journal, commentary on how – for centuries – transparent water exchanges have built resilience across diverse cultures:
“Water-Trading Market Runs Into Trouble” (Business News, Sept. 4) sheds overdue light on the abject mess Down Under. However, cap-and-trade water markets are neither strange nor new. For centuries, transparent water exchanges—Oman’s aflaj, Morocco’s khettara, Iran’s qanat, China’s karez, Bali’s subak, Spain’s Huertas—have built resilience across diverse cultures. These traditional self-governing systems weren’t imported and installed by economists or governments, nor did they emerge overnight by accident. Each evolved locally under unique conditions. Yet all share common traits—transparency, transactions and trust.
Whether constructing a stable house or a robust water-conservation market, any architect worth her salt recognizes form follows function. Set the foundation in clearly defined goals that have been transparently proposed and agreed to by stakeholders, align rules for engagement and transactions, and grow organically from there. Building trust is neither quick nor easy, but it’s essential. Ultimately, conservation markets succeed only to the extent that they transcend mere transaction efficiency to also restore ecological health and ensure social equity, enhancing outcomes through transparent accountability. That’s why the most credible natural-resource-market designers rely less on economic formulas or the needs of outside speculators than on anthropologists, hydroecologists, sociologists and human-rights attorneys.
Our increasingly thirsty planet can’t afford another hasty launch. So entrust California natural-resource markets to California farmers, families, fishermen, firms and officials. We’ll build our own institutional market systems, from the ground (water) up.
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