Is Starting a Land Trust Right for You?

There are several factors to consider when deciding whether or not to form a new land trust. To help with this decision, you should consider the following steps:

• • Check out land trusts currently operating near you by clicking through the member directories of organizations such as the Ontario Land Trust Alliance, Land Trust Alliance of British Columbia,the Réseau de milieux naturels protégés, and the Regional Land Trusts of Alberta. Contact the alliances and/or land trusts to learn more about opportunities and ways to work together in your area or land interest.

• • Assemble a group of individuals who believe in the proposed land trust’s cause and mission and are willing to dedicate themselves to its initial undertakings. These founding members will likely form the organization’s first board of directors.  A board of directors is the principal decision-making body and a legal requirement for incorporation and charitable registration.

• • Complete the checklist found in Appendix 1: Guide to the Formation of an Effective Land Trust to initiate discussion and work toward clarifying the issues or needs that your land trust will address.  This checklist will help answer the initial question, “Is starting a land trust right for you?” and will point you to the next steps to consider.

• • To offer tax benefits to donors of cash and land, land trusts must apply to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to become registered charities or their equivalents, such as other types of qualified donees. To assist you in making this decision, you should consider the following:
    • Review information on the Canada Revenue Agency website.  It offers guidance to make an informed decision to become a registered charity or a “public body performing a function of government” (potentially applicable to Indigenous Bands or corporations). Discover the advantages and obligations of charitable registration or qualified donee status.
    • Complete CRA’s online decision tree, which offers case-specific considerations in answering the question to be, or not to be, a charity.

Other Land Conservation Options/Organizations

Establishing a land trust is no easy feat. It is an involved process, a long-term commitment and may not be the only option in certain situations. There are a number of ways in which a group or individuals can work to protect land without necessarily forming a new land trust. Land conservation can be advanced by becoming involved in your province or territory’s land use planning process and participating in discussions, public meetings and appeals. If there are just one or two properties involved, then you may be better to partner with an existing organization to achieve your goals, possibly as a sub-committee or branch of an organization. This saves the dollars and volunteer effort needed to set up and operate a new organization.  Alternatively, you might want to bring conservation opportunities to the attention of other organizations operating in your area that might have an interest. The following may be helpful to contact:

• • Local, provincial, territorial or national land trusts;

• • Indigenous communities and organizations;

• • Local conservation or watershed agency;

• • Local or regional governments and their land holding programs;

• • Province or Territory department responsible for natural resources, environment, culture, agriculture, Indigenous or rural affairs; and/or

• • Local community foundations and other known community groups who might also have insights.

Once you have identified the organizations in your area of interest, you could then:

• • Identify the organization(s) with goals that align closely with protecting the distinctive values of interest to you in the community.

• • Research and initiate informal conversations with contacts from each organization to gain an understanding of the group dynamics and momentum and ask how holding and caring for land might fit with or complement their work. This will enable you to gauge the potential interest in partnerships.

• • For Indigenous-led land trusts, you may wish to speak with other similar land trusts and inquire how they have addressed opportunities and limitations with the land trust model; ACLT is gathering information and examples to help new ILTs.

• • Discuss your findings with your proposed land trust’s founding members and determine how to move forward with each partnership opportunity.

• • Initiate formal discussions with groups focusing on the most likely partnership first. 

• • Pursue partnerships if both groups realize the potential for benefits.

• • If a partnership is formed, it should be formalized in a written agreement between the partners.

In pursuing partnership opportunities, be aware of how the current reputation, record of success, momentum, dynamics, operations, volunteers, board, and members of a potential partner organization will respond to the introduction of a new group of interest and expertise and a new, potentially time-consuming and resource-intense, land holding program.  Will a renewed energy complement the existing purpose or draw from it?  Will the partnership create the desired land conservation organization?  Will the ultimate result be an effective land trust? 

These steps are not overly time-consuming nor are they a heavy draw on resources.  Even if they do not result in formal partnerships being established, the exercise should help foster good working relationships and open the lines of communication with others working in your area.  Each experience brings heightened knowledge and understanding, which may help inform outreach and communications moving forward with the formation of the land trust.  A further benefit will be the increased awareness and buy-in from like-minded community members.

Indigenous Conservation and Meaningful Engagement

Historically, land trusts are rooted in European legal systems of private property ownership that do not incorporate Indigenous knowledge and legal frameworks[1]. As the number of conservation organizations has grown across Canada, vast expanses of land have been set aside for protection from people, effectively perpetuating the settler-colonial values of nature as separate from humans and systematically restricting Indigenous peoples’ access and traditional use of their ancestral territories[2],[3]. Indigenous peoples are the original stewards and protectors since time immemorial of the ecosystems land trusts work to conserve, and Indigenous-led knowledge and conservation efforts are key to combating climate change and environmental degradation. Indeed, Indigenous territory covers approximately 20% of the Earth’s land surface and harbours 80% of the remaining global biodiversity[4]. The Western conservation model rooted in colonial ideals of pristine wilderness to be left untouched, with limited or no human interaction and relationship, is beginning to be re-examined and amended in recent years. Many existing land trusts have been seeking meaningful engagement with Indigenous Nations while Indigenous-led land trusts have been emerging as a tool for self-determination and land back[5]. 

Indigenous-led land trusts may apply some of the approaches outlined in this Guide, but some aspects may be different (e.g. purposes, land holding and care, and tax implications), as highlighted throughout this Guide.

As you consider establishing a land trust, it is worthwhile to be aware of Canada’s history and the ongoing impacts of colonialism on the territories where you live and work, to seek to build relationships with Indigenous communities, and include Indigenous voices, practices and knowledge in your organization from the very beginning. For those less familiar with Indigenous communities, consider the following:

• • Familiarize yourself with which Nation’s lands you inhabit and work on.

• • Learn about the Nation, its communities, culture, needs and interests.

• • Do your research about any established Treaties, Treaty negotiations or legal Land Claims currently underway or protocols applicable in your area.

• • Learn about some of the opportunities, limitations and legal barriers to land return.

• • Read through and apply relevant items from ACLT’s and others’ list of resources on best practices for meaningful Indigenous engagement.

• • Read through some recent examples of land trusts engaging in land back.