University of Massachusetts economist James Boyce, Indian environmentalists Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain, and others, this work has found that income and human well-being expand when degraded land, water, and ecosystems are cleaned up and repurposed by the people who live on and around them.

In Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, and Switzerland, there’s an agreed-upon principle, sometimes codified as law, called the “Right to Roam,” “Freedom to Roam,” or “Everyman’s Right.” So long as you’re not harming the natural environment or landowner, you can access any lands, private or publ