Land Trust Standards and Practices Revision
Standards Revision Completed
Thank you for your feedback! The Land Trust Alliance board approved the 2017 edition of Land Trust Standards and Practices at its February board meeting — download the final version (available en español and en français). All Alliance member land trusts must adopt the revised Standards as part of their annual membership renewal beginning with those who are renewing their membership in June 2017.
Highlights of What’s New and What to Expect
Here’s a brief summary of what’s new, what to expect and where to find more information.
Wondering what happened to a practice (or part of a practice) from the 2004 version in the 2017 revised Standards? See this crosswalk comparison for help.
Resources
Checklist of Written Materials, Policies or Procedures
This checklist will help ensure that your land trust's written materials, policies or procedures meet the 2017 Land Trust Standards and Practices.
Checklist for Transactions
This transaction checklist will help ensure that your land and easement acquisitions meet the 2017 Land Trust Standards and Practices.
File Audit for Land and Stewardship Records
Use this spreadsheet to review and document the existence (or not) of records in your land and stewardship files. Adjust to file make this your own.
2017 Land Trust Standards and Practices
Land Trust Standards and Practices are the ethical and technical guidelines for the responsible operation of a land trust. The Land Trust Alliance drafted the first Standards in 1989 at the urging of land trusts and to affirm certain best practices as the surest way to secure lasting conservation. To maintain the land trust community’s strength, credibility and effectiveness, the Standards were updated in 1993, 2001 and 2004. In preparing this 2017 update, an advisory team, comprised of land trust professionals from across the country, reviewed and discussed more than 1,600 comments from conservationists throughout the United States. These many voices were an invaluable asset throughout the revision process.
While this document is a publication of the Land Trust Alliance, the Standards are a collective product of the land trust community. The advisory team was as diverse in perspective as the comments the team reviewed. Unanimity was not necessarily achieved on each standard or practice, but this document reflects the expressed values and recommendations of many land trusts.
The nation’s more than 1,300 nonprofit land trusts have conserved 56 million acres of wildlife habitat, farms, ranches, forests, watersheds, recreation areas and other open spaces as of 2015. The continued success of land trusts depends on public confidence in — and support of — our community as we build conservation programs that stand the test of time. It is therefore every land trust’s responsibility to uphold this public confidence and ensure the permanence of its conservation efforts. Implementing the Standards positions a land trust to achieve these goals and, if it so wishes, seek insurance through Terrafirma and pursue accreditation through the Land Trust Accreditation Commission.
Each member of the Land Trust Alliance must adopt the Standards as guiding principles for its operations, pledging a commitment to uphold the public confidence and the credibility of the land trust community as a whole. It is important to note that while the Standards are thorough, they are not exhaustive. There will be times when the Standards do not make clear a land trust’s best path forward. In these moments, the organization’s board should exercise its best judgment as informed by the spirit of these Standards.
Land trusts are a respected and integral part of our nation’s conservation work. Together, we must support our peers and hold ourselves to the highest standards as we continue to conserve the places we need and love.
Revision Goals
In 2016-2017, the Land Trust Alliance led a process working directly with the land trust community to revise Land Trust Standards and Practices. The goals of the process were to:
- Update the Standards to reflect changes over the past decade in the legal and operational environment of the land trust community.
- Build greater awareness and support for the Standards.
- Encourage all land trusts to use the Standards as a foundation for their work.
- Ensure overall alignment of the Standards with the Land Trust Accreditation Program, Terrafirma and the wide array of resources and documents supporting best practices for land trusts.
Community Input Results
The Land Trust Alliance invited land trusts to comment on the Standards revisions. All input was given full consideration. The initial community participation phase was March 1 through September 15, 2016. The second, targeted comment period ran from October 13 through December 16.
- View the February 2016 discussion draft, the potential changes proposed by the Alliance, the Commission and the Standards Advisory Team
- View all comments received on the initial discussion draft during the first comment period: Ethleo online platform | Email | Mail
- View the responsiveness document, a practice-by-practice explanation of what we heard and the changes we made as a result
- View the October 2016 discussion draft, the changes made by the Alliance, the Commission and the Standards Advisory Team in response to the initial input phase
- View all comments received on the revised discussion draft during the second comment period: Ethleo online platform | Email | Mail
- View the 2017 edition of Land Trust Standards and Practices
View the track changes version of each standard from the 2004 edition of Land Trust Standards and Practices:
Standards 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
Standards Advisory Team
A core team from the Alliance and the Commission managed the revisions process, and the Standards Advisory Team, a team of land trust representatives that reflects the diversity of Alliance member land trusts, provided detailed advice and guidance. The advisory team consisted of 14 members from the land trust community.
Projected Timeline
Task |
Timing |
|---|---|
|
Land Trust Alliance board of directors review and approval of Standards Advisory Team slate |
January 2016 |
|
Initial in-person meeting of the Standards Advisory Team |
February 17-19, 2016 |
|
Hold Standards and Practices dialogues at spring meetings and other identified events |
March-May 2016 |
|
Collect detailed input on proposed revisions via online platform |
March-September 15, 2016 |
|
Second in-person meeting of the Standards Advisory Team to compile, synthesize and analyze input |
September 29-30, 2016 |
|
Revised discussion draft available for second phase of community input |
Mid-October–December 16, 2016 COMPLETE |
|
Third in-person meeting of the Standards Advisory Team to finalize overall recommendations for the revised Standards |
January 10-11, 2017 COMPLETE |
|
Land Trust Alliance board approves Standards and Practices revisions |
February 2017 COMPLETE |
Land Trust Standards and Practices Q&A
What are Land Trust Standards and Practices?
Last revised in 2004, Land Trust Standards and Practices are the ethical and technical guidelines for the responsible operation of a land trust. The Standards set 12 broad principles or standards. These standards are broken down into 59 practices and 188 practice elements, which describe the essential actions needed to fulfill the standards. You can read the full document here. They exist not to protect a minimum level of performance, but to make the entire land trust community aspire to excellence and continuous improvement.
Who uses Land Trust Standards and Practices?
Land Trust Alliance member land trusts must adopt the Standards — meaning that they affirm these guidelines in principle and commit to putting them into effect.
How do land trusts benefit from the implementation of Land Trust Standards and Practices?
Land trusts that commit to these best practices know that for land conservation to succeed over the long term, we need to secure the public’s confidence and support. All land trusts must demonstrate effectiveness and credibility — otherwise the ones that fall short could undermine the whole conservation movement.
Who benefits from Land Trust Standards and Practices?
The public, which benefits from more effective and efficient land trusts; the entire land trust community, which benefits from a commitment across the sector to excellence and continuous improvement; and individual land trusts, which commit to pursuing continuous improvement.
What is the relationship between accreditation and Land Trust Standards and Practices?
To earn accreditation, a land trust must demonstrate that it has implemented the Standards with a thorough verification of the accreditation indicator practices drawn from the Standards. Check out this infographic that explains how standards, practices, elements, accreditation indicators (adopted by the Alliance) and accreditation requirements (adopted by the Commission) fit together to build strong land trusts.
Who developed Land Trust Standards and Practices?
The Land Trust Alliance developed the Standards in 1989 at the urging of land trust practitioners who believed a strong land trust community depends on the credibility and effectiveness of all of its members and who understand that employing best practices is the surest way to lasting conservation.
Land Trust Standards and Practices 2016-2017 Revisions Process Q&A
Was this the first revision of Land Trust Standards and Practices?
No, with the participation of the land trust community, the Alliance revised the Standards in 1993, 2001 and 2004 to reflect changes in land trust practices and regulations governing nonprofit organizations.
What were the goals for this revisions process?
The objective of this revisions process was to make Land Trust Standards and Practices more readable and accessible and offer a clear framework for presenting the practices that engage more land trusts in a process of continuous improvement according to their size, needs and aspirations.
How long did the revisions process take?
Because the Alliance intended to allow many opportunities for the land trust community to provide input, the revisions process formally kicked off in early 2016 and continued into 2017.
How did people input during the revision of Land Trust Standards and Practices?
There were multiple opportunities for people to let us know what they thought. The revisions were finalized after the full land trust community had the opportunity to weigh in and all input was given full consideration. The process focused on a series of in-person dialogues in the spring and summer of 2016, and an online forum for providing detailed input.
Who did the work of revising Land Trust Standards and Practices?
There was a core team of staff and stakeholders, designated by the Alliance board, which was responsible for soliciting, reviewing and reflecting all comments, suggestions and edits to Land Trust Standards and Practices. The Standards Advisory Team, whose members advised the core team, provided direct input into the revisions process and served as liaisons to the broader land trust community.
My land trust is accredited; will these revisions change the Standards that form the basis for accreditation?
For more information about accreditation and the Land Trust Standards and Practices revisions, please visit the Land Trust Accreditation Commission website
When will Land Trust Standards and Practices next be revised?
The Alliance, in partnership with the Accreditation Commission and the land trust community, is continually assessing the Standards against the work that land trusts do and the challenges and opportunities they face. We anticipate that the next full revisions process will not occur for at least another seven years.
Additional questions? Contact Sylvia Bates at sandp@lta.org.
