Conservation Easements

New Federal Law Enhances Conservation Tax Incentives

New tax incentives are available for private landowners interested in protecting the important conservation values of their lands through the donation of conservation easements. Learn more about this unique opportunity.

Conservation Easements: Conserving Land, Water and a Way of Life

Read a primer on conservation easements and how the Conservancy implements them. (pdf)

Easements at Work

See how conservation easements are protecting everything from a Nebraska sandhills ranch to a wild jaguar in New Mexico.

Conservation Easements in the United States

Read fact sheets on easements across the country.

Conservation Buyer Program

Learn about this innovative revolving fund, which depends on conservation easements for its success.

Fast Facts About Conservation Easements

Discover just how widespread this critical tool has become.

Conserving Land, Water and a Way of Life

Mindful of the spread of suburban sprawl into the once-remote Loess Hills of western Iowa, Barry and Carolyn Knapp donated to The Nature Conservancy a conservation easement that protects a thousand acres of their farm. © Heather Waugh/Lakeside Studio

Conservation easements are one of the most powerful, effective tools available for the permanent conservation of private lands in the United States. The use of conservation easements has successfully protected millions of acres of wildlife habitat and open space, keeping land in private hands and generating significant public benefits.

What is a Conservation Easement?

A conservation easement is a voluntary, legally binding agreement that limits certain types of uses or prevents development from taking place on a piece of property now and in the future, while protecting the property’s ecological or open-space values. Learn more about how a conservation easement works.

How The Nature Conservancy Uses Easements

For more than four decades, The Nature Conservancy has been using conservation easements to protect landscapes from development—affording them better protection than could be accomplished through outright purchase.

In the Blackfoot Valley of Montana, for instance, the Conservancy accepted the state’s first conservation easement on 1,800 acres in the mid-1970s. Today, 30,254 acres in the Blackfoot are covered by easements— and it is one of the most intact landscapes in all of Montana.

Latest About Conservation Easements and the Conservancy

Press Release: Conservancy's Revised Conservation Tax Law Favors Working Families
Find out how the Pension Protection Act of 2006 provides new tax incentives to a widening circle of Wyoming ranchers actively protecting that state’s remaining open spaces.
Press Release: Conservancy's New York State Director Appointed to Commission Overseeing Quality of Land Conservation
Henry Tepper, Director of The Nature Conservancy's New York Chapter, was recently appointed by the Land Trust Alliance to a new commission established to ensure the quality of land conservation.