Indigenous Land Trusts

Resources, history, and connections for the growing ILT network

Indigenous Land Trusts

To reclaim land-based relationships, some Indigenous communities have decided to explore the land trust model and form an Indigenous-led land trust (ILT) or similar entities.

An ILT is an organization where the form, purposes, and activities are established and operated by Indigenous people, including holding and caring for lands. ILTs may be somewhat like other land trusts, but are tailored to the priorities and concepts of that Indigenous Nation or community. Goals might include ecological conservation, cultural revitalization and learning, sacred spaces and ceremony, healing, growing food or housing capacity, and exercising self-governance.

An ILT can be formed by a particular Nation or community, or can come from one or more Indigenous sectors or communities acting at a grassroots level. While an ILT is often a not-for-profit corporation and a registered charity, similar functions may be achieved through alternative or more Indigenous-oriented structures.

The resources below have been produced by Alliance of Canadian Land Trusts (ACLT), our partners, and others. They are presented here to assist ILTs, Indigenous communities, and similar organizations as they explore land holding, Land Back, and the reassertion of relationships, self-governance, and cultural practices on the land.

Explore Further

Resources below include studies and materials on Indigenous partnerships and ILTs in the first section, general land trust tools applicable to ILTs in the second, and Indigenous engagement pages from other land trust alliances in the third.

More resources will be added soon, including notes on applying Indigenous elements in conservation easement agreements, decolonizing not-for-profit bylaws and governance, and other technical documents.

Research and Reflections on Indigenous Partnerships and ILTs

Indigenous-Municipal Land Case Studies, Ian Attridge, ACLT, January 2026
Indigenous Land Trusts: Opportunities and Challenges, Ian Attridge, ACLT, March 2025
Indigenous Land Trusts and Land Back, Ian Attridge, ACLT, October 2024
Land Trusts and Indigenous Peoples: The Canadian Context, Kristi Leora Gansworth, Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership, May 2024
Land trusts can help protect ecologically sensitive land in cottage country. Here’s how they work, Sasha Chapman, Cottage Life, May 2024
Potential for Partnerships: Indigenous Communities, Municipalities and Environmental Groups Collaborating Together(Preliminary Findings), Ian Attridge, ACLT, April 2024
Indigenous Land Trusts: Using and Transcending Setler Colonial Legal Frameworks, Clint Jacobs and Leora Gansworth, October 2023
Indigenous-led Land Trusts: An Exercise of Self-Determination, (Kristi) Leora Gansworth and Ian Attridge, Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership, August 2022
Conservation Through Reconciliation Partnership & Indigenous Land Trusts, Robin Roth, Ian Attridge, Lisa McLaughlin, Megan Pagniello, Conservation Through Reconciliation Partnership, October 2021

Practical Resources for Building an ILT

IPCA Knowledge Basket, with an extensive resources on Indigenous-led conservation – Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership
Land Trust Starter Guide, with sections on forming an ILT, and relevant legal steps, legislation and guidance materials – ACLT
Land Trust Assessment Tool, with Standards and Practices plus sample policies – ACLT, Land Trust Alliance of British Colombia, Ontario Land Trust Alliance, ROCQ
Ecological Gifts Program, with description of this federal program that provides tax benefits for donations of ecologically sensitive lands – Environment and Climate Change Canada
Treaty Land Sharing Network, to connect farmers and Indigenous land users – Treaty Land Sharing Network

Land Acknowledgment

We express our gratitude for the lands, sky, and waters stretching across Canada, and the animals and plants who call it home. We are grateful for their beauty and bounty, and we thank Indigenous peoples who were and are the traditional guardians of this land. We are grateful for the land, sharing of knowledge, medicine, and much more.

Canada has been home since time immemorial to the ancestors of the First Nation, Métis people, and Inuit. As a national organization, ACLT operates in various parts of Canada, and we acknowledge that many of ACLT’s employees and volunteers are settlers working and living on traditional territories of the First Peoples of this land.

To understand and read more about the many Indigenous people and territories that exist here in the land we now know as Canada, please go to native-land.ca.

Reconnaissance des terres

Nous exprimons notre gratitude pour les terres, le ciel et les eaux qui s’étendent à travers le Canada, ainsi qu’aux animaux et aux plantes qui y vivent. Nous sommes reconnaissants pour leur beauté et leur générosité, et nous remercions les peuples autochtones, qui ont été et sont toujours les gardiens traditionnels de ces territoires. Nous sommes reconnaissants pour la terre, le partage des connaissances, les médecines traditionnelles et bien plus encore.

Le Canada est le foyer, depuis des temps immémoriaux, des ancêtres des Premières Nations, des Métis et des Inuits. En tant qu’organisation nationale, l’ACOC est active dans diverses régions du pays, et nous reconnaissons que bon nombre de nos employés et bénévoles sont des personnes allochtones vivant et travaillant sur les territoires traditionnels des Premiers Peuples de cette terre.

Pour en apprendre davantage sur les nombreux peuples autochtones et territoires qui composent ce que nous appelons aujourd’hui le Canada, visitez native-land.ca.

ACLT is a team of passionate and dedicated individuals working alongside community partners to protect Canada’s natural landscapes. Through advocacy, education, and teamwork, we support land trusts in preserving the lands and ecosystems that are vital to our future. We work closely with Réseau des milieux naturels protégés, the Ontario Land Trust Alliance and the Land Trust Alliance of British Columbia.

Indigenous Land Trusts