The property rights regime applied to resources is usually a policy choice – its use is dependent upon circumstances. In a market creation context, however, property rights are a fundamental underpinning of successful outcomes. A property rights regimes, provides restricted access so that its “owner” is assured that today’s investments will generate tomorrow’s returns. A successful property rights institution, therefore, guarantees exclusive access to future flows of goods and services from a resource – thus providing the incentive for long-term, even inter-generational, planning. Many of the resources we have come to know as biodiversity are thought of as non-excludable, but need not be so. For example, the international agreement on the Law of the Sea provides that fisheries within 200 miles of a state’s coastline fall ...