This first workshop of the LIFE ELCN project will investigate how private land conservation works under existing EU and national legislation and how new instruments could be legally codified to forster the concept of private land conservation. The workshop will focus on two topics: “conservation easements” and “privately protected areas”.

Conservation easements are widely used in North America and other parts of the world, but are are harldy known in the EU. They represent a property law tool that landowners can use to protect their land by defining permissible land uses in perpetuity. Their wider-scale application will require a sound legal basis and proper financial instruments to incentivise landowners to use the tool for the protection of their land. Likewise, the protection category ‘privately protected area’ is codified in only a handful of EU member states (e.g. Portugal and Belgium). Moreover, public funding for the establishment, governance and management of privately protected areas has been largely lacking.

By bringing together leading experts and identifying reform needs for conservation, property, tax and charitable law; the workshop aims at critically investigating the potential and the risks of these and other legal tools for private land conservation in Europe. 

More information is available here.