Policy « Disasters, Property, and Politics

Land Rights and Sustainability

A recent report by Rights and Resources and presented at the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples argues that recognizing the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples living in tropical areas must include securing their rights to their land and thus, to their livelihood, and that this would not only help indigenous peoples economically, but would also help to maintain the forests. As the report states, “Secure local land rights are increasingly recognized as a low-cost strategy to reduce forest carbon emissions; a means to reduce financial risk to investments and secure a sustainable supply of commodities; and a basic human right of the people whose lives and livelihoods rely on local resources.”

Vulnerable Populations and Property Rights

An interesting story from the Asia Foundation discusses various property rights issues that have emerged in Asia. They write that there are key areas that are impacted when land tenure is insecure: “displaced women in conflict and post-conflict countries, urban land tenure for youth, and innovative technologies improving land tenure for vulnerable populations.” This echoes both the report mentioned above written by Rights and Resources and another I had blogged about published by the Open Society Institute a few months ago. Taken all together, there is an emerging consensus among advocates worldwide that property rights matter to a stable and healthy society in part because they protect some of the most vulnerable people in a society.

Volcanoes

Yes indeed, here’s my obsession again: The Washington Post had a fascinating story this weekend about volcanologists — no, they are not people who study Vulcans. They study volcanoes… Sometimes, this involves running and finding cover as hot ash and red-hot rocks fly at them. Sometimes they get to stand back in awe and just watch. No matter what, they have interesting jobs. The story is great and covers some of the current volcanic activity and includes some beautiful and dramatic photos.

I’ve written a lot lately about various problems with the National Flood Insurance Program. To briefly summarize, in light of decades of failures Congress passed the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act in July of 2012, which promised to meaningfully reform the NFIP (for details, see my earlier posts on this topic). Biggert-Waters promised to phase out subsidized premiums for flood insurance, and thus have individuals and businesses actually pay for their own risk, update Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs), to name only two of its most important components. Biggert-Waters came under fire very quickly after its passage, however. Property owners around the country began to complain when they realized that Biggert-Waters would cause their flood insurance premiums to rise – in some cases, by very large amounts.

On March 21, 2014, President Obama signed the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 into law. This new law repeals several key provisions of Biggert-Waters, and modifies or delays other provisions. The Flood Insurance Affordability Act lowers the rate increases under Biggert-Waters – and even promises refunds to many people whose rates went up after Biggert-Waters went into effect. The new law preserves the premium subsidies that Biggert-Waters would have phased out, and extends the “grandfather clause” for pre-FIRM properties. The Flood Insurance Affordability Act also enacts a number of new protections for persons who own property in flood zones, including increased deductibles, assistance based on “ability to pay,” opportunity for discounts based on flood mitigation actions, and provision of FEMA “Flood Insurance Advocates” who will be tasked with advocating for the “fair treatment” of policy holders. On balance, the Flood Insurance Affordability Act undoes most of the (modest) good that Biggert-Waters promised.

The repeal of Biggert-Waters underscores several of the points I raised in earlier posts. Most importantly, real reform of NFIP will not be possible until we begin to address underlying causes of our present flood problems, and stop merely treating the symptoms – such as “high” premiums.

For a policy brief on the full details of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Protection Act of 2014, see this FEMA publication.