Conservation Defense Insurance

Quick links to information:

-NEW! Program Documents

-Alliance Board Asks Land Trusts to Participate in Conservation Defense Insurance Program

-Threats to Permanence

-Land Trusts Support Conservation Defense Insurance

-Background on the Proposed Program

Threats to Permanence

Conservation easements and preserves owned by land trusts are increasingly under attack across America. These attacks are coming from a few landowners who attempt to undermine their conservation easements, utilities looking for new transmission corridors, adjoining landowners, developers and trespassers. Although land trusts have had relatively few legal challenges, research shows that as property values rise, incentives to disrupt or void easements grow as well, and so does trespass on land trust property.

Just because your land trust has never had to fund major litigation in the past does not mean that you will be so lucky in the future. Every land trust has some conservation easements that are older or not so well-drafted, and even solid easements are vulnerable to violations and frivolous lawsuits. Eventually, every land trust will face some form of litigation.

The stakes are high, as a single adverse decision from a legal case could endanger the permanence of thousands of easements. Without action now, the land trust community risks losing many of the gains made in recent years. Land trusts and their attorneys must be prepared to defend easements in court if all other negotiated resolutions fail. For many land trusts without sufficient reserves for defending easements and land, the costs of a single lawsuit could threaten the land trust’s survival. Moreover, if a land trust fails to properly defend an easement, it could result in bad case law that could jeopardize easements held by other organizations across the United States.

A land trust should not have to stand alone against a well-funded adversary, and the united strength of 1,700 land trusts across America could present a formidable defense. In the past, land trusts have been able to raise funds to defend an occasional challenge to an easement, but the expected increase in legal challenges now require a coordinated national strategy.

Alliance Board Asks Land Trusts to Participate in Conservation Defense Insurance Program

Thank you to the hundreds of land trust volunteers, board and staff members and attorneys who commented on the drafts of the proposed conservation defense insurance program.

At their June 5 meeting the Alliance board approved the terms of a potential program to cover the costs of enforcing and defending easements and protecting land trust land. We need a minimum of 12,000 easements or fee parcels for this program to be feasible, so the next step is to find out how many land trusts are willing to participate.

The Alliance board will evaluate the level of commitment over the next year and determine later whether to proceed further with exploring feasibility of this possible program.

Your land trust may be reluctant to take on the cost of the new premium in the midst of a recession. Because of that concern, premium payments would not begin until the program starts. If the Alliance board ultimately approves the program, we wouldn’t begin actual operations before January 31, 2012 and possibly as late as December 31, 2013. However, a modest registration fee is due with your letter of commitment.

Learn more background on Conservation Defense Insurance >>

Program Documents

NEW! Commitment Letter (Word, 70KB, 6/16/09)

NEW! Final Terms and Conditions (PDF, 170KB, 6/16/09)

Summary of Terms and Conditions (Word, 712KB)

Executive Summary of Feasibility Report (PDF, 270KB)

Full Feasibility Report and Cover Letter (PDF, 397KB)

For questions, call or write to:

Leslie Ratley-Beach
Conservation Defense Director
Land Trust Alliance
44 Deerfield Drive
Montpelier, VT  05062
802-262-6051 phone and fax
lrbeach@lta.org 

Land Trusts Support Conservation Defense Insurance

Christian Freitag, attorney-at-law and executive director at Sycamore Land Trust (Indiana), says "I view Conservation Defense Insurance as another step the land trust community is taking to keep our promises. We claim that we will help people protect their land in perpetuity. With this program, the public can be more confident than ever that we take that commitment seriously."

Greg Gamble, executive director at Ojai Valley Land Conservancy (California), says that “this is one of the most helpful things that the Land Trust Alliance could attempt for its members, and I have greatly appreciated the professional, thoughtful, fair and inclusive process that you have led.”