The long-term success of private and civic land conservation efforts depends in large part on the public trust inspired by strong and stable land conservation organizations. Protecting land is a resource-intensive effort that represents an enduring commitment by a conservation organization to local communities, land owners and users, government agencies, private investors, and philanthropic organizations. We share strategies and experiences from land conservation nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations, and networks across the globe who are working on developing and implementing voluntary standards of operations and governance, training and developing staff and expertise, engaging with local communities and stakeholder groups, and taking other initiatives to strengthen their capacity, relevance, and durability.
Resources & Education
Recent ILCN and external resources related to organization and governance.
2021 Global Congress Session Recordings
Sylvia Bates, Director of Standards & Educational Services at the Land Trust Alliance, describes the history and context of the development of the U.S. standards, and discusses her insights from the experiences of land conservation organizations and networks in different jurisdictions, including Canada, Catalonia and Chile, in adapting and establishing standards and practices in their locales.
Guidelines for Establishing Standards and Practices in Private Land Conservation: A Framework for International Application
The IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) recently announced the publication of its Guidelines for Privately Protected Areas. The guidelines are the latest in the IUCN WCPA Best Practice Protected Areas Guidelines Series.
Experts
Sylvia Bates
Director of Standards & Educational Services, Land Trust Alliance
Sylvia is the director of standards and educational services for the Land Trust Alliance, the voice of the land trust community in the United States, and lives in New Hampshire. Since 2006, she has led the Alliance’s work on Land Trust Standards and Practices, the ethical and technical guidelines for the responsible operation of a land trust, and other cutting-edge issues related to conservation defense and conservation easement permanence. She is also the Alliance’s liaison to the international land trust community and serves on the ILCN steering committee. She has worked in the land conservation field since 1987, most recently as an independent consultant and real estate broker, providing assistance to land trusts, landowners and public agencies on land conservation projects, easement stewardship and organizational development. She was formerly the director of land protection for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. Sylvia has a degree in environmental biology from Yale University and has done graduate work at the Yale School of Forestry.
Victoria Marles
CEO, Trust for Nature
Kiragu Mwangi
Senior Capacity Development Manager, Birdlife International
Kiragu has worked eighteen years in the BirdLife International Partnership. From 2001 to 2005, he was based with Nature Kenya – BirdLife’s partner in Kenya. He has now spent fourteen years working for BirdLife International, based in Cambridge, in the United Kingdom. Currently, Kiragu is a Senior Capacity Development Manager at BirdLife. In this role, the focus is on empowering people with capacity development initiatives and projects targeted to individuals for professional development, organizations and systems across the 117 BirdLife International partners. He is very interested in working with people to develop capacity to deliver conservation projects. Capacity for Conservation’s website is one of the examples of work Kiragu has participated in to harness critical information for improving capabilities of individuals and organizations working in biodiversity conservation. Kiragu is also very interested in knowledge management, especially for critical areas affecting people and biodiversity. This has led to developing information platforms for conservation practitioners interested in engaging in dialogue with stakeholders at site, sub-national and national levels on the links between biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and climate change. Kiragu has a BSc in Natural Resources Management and an MSc in Applied Ecology and Conservation. He is a PRINCE2 and MSP certified practitioner and foundation levels respectively, both accredited to APMG International. Through his work Kiragu has travel to 29 countries and remotely helped with conservation projects in another 26 countries all over different regions of the world.
Tilmann Disselhoff
Project Coordinator, LIFE-ELCN
Tilmann holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from Technical University of Berlin and has received scholarships by the Robert Bosch Foundation and the German National Academic Foundation. Ha has over a decade of work experience as consultant for the European Commission, the German Federal Environmental Ministry, the German Federal Environmental Foundation and other clients. In recent years, Tilmann has focused his professional interest on conservation financing and private land conservation. He currently coordinates a LIFE project to develop the European Land Conservation Network (ELCN), an EU-wide network of organisations active in private land conservation. Tilmann is a founding steering committee member of the International Land Conservation Network and a steering committee member of Eurosite.
Lisa McLaughlin
Vice President, Conservation Policy and Planning, Nature Conservancy of Canada
Lisa McLaughlin joined the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) in 1999. She has held a variety of positions ranging from stewardship assistant to chief conservation officer. Currently, Lisa is the vice-president of conservation policy & planning for NCC. She is responsible for ensuring that NCC's land, acquisition and management activities are guided by strategic priorities informed by the best-available information. She is the lead liaison with many of NCC’s national and international partners, including government and not-for-profit organizations. A biologist (BSc) and rural planner (MSc) by training, Lisa has more than 17 years' experience in the management of conservation lands and the governance of private land conservation organizations. She has been a board member of the Ontario Land Trust Alliance, vice-chair of the Canadian Land Trust Alliance, is currently a steering committee member of the International Land Conservation Network, a member of the Privately Protected Areas working group of the World Commission on Protected Areas, and serves as board chair of the Canadian Committee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Constanza Cobos
Executive Director, Asi Conserva Chile
Constanza is the executive director of ASI Conserva Chile, an institution that brings together different private conservation initiatives from all over the country. She graduated as a biologist from Universidad de Chile and completed a Master’s in Biological Sciences from the same university. She spent her early career years as an academic researcher on the phylogenetic diversity of native flora, and as consultant for the private sector in environmental impact studies. She first embarked on the private and community-based conservation field collaborating with the management of the privately protected area, Hacienda el Durazno Park, in northern Chile, and has ever since volunteered in the area’s conservation by engaging the local community in an environmental education program, and by conducting research on its native flora y fauna. Her latest work in ASI Conserva Chile has focused on strengthening the organization and developing national standards for private conservation initiatives, for the emergence of land trust organizations and for the use of the Derecho Real de Conservación law in Chile, in collaboration with others public and private institutions.
Jofre Rodrigo
Executive Director, Xarxa per a la Conservació de la Natura
Jofre is from Catalonia and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Girona, as well as a Master's Degree in Advanced Studies in Foundations of Economic Analysis from the same university. Following his Master’s degree, he focused on professional environmental consultancy. He is currently executive co-director of the Xarxa per a la Conservació de la Natura (XCN). Established in 2003, XCN is a second-level organization composed of over 160 associations, foundations, city councils and enterprises working to foster land stewardship and environmental volunteering as a nature conservation strategy for Catalonia. A working group under XCN coordination facilitated, for the first time in Europe, the civil code regulation of land stewardship contracts in Catalonia. Currently, the Government of Catalonia is working together with the XCN to implement a public Register of Stewardship Agreements and a tax incentive framework for land stewardship.
Brent Mitchell
Senior Vice President, QLF Atlantic Center for the Environment
Brent A. Mitchell is Senior Vice President of QLF Atlantic Center for the Environment, a US/Canadian NGO advancing conservation through international exchange, capacity-building, facilitation, and technical assistance in over 50 countries. As a member of IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas, he is leading the specialist group on privately protected areas (PPAs)and nature stewardship, and is lead author on IUCN Guidelines on Privately Protected Areas launched in 2018. He is a founding partner in the (U.S.) National Park Service Stewardship Institute and past president of the George Wright Society, the protected area professionals association of North America. He consults for IUCN’s World Heritage program, especially on mixed natural and cultural sites, and areas under customary governance.
Key Partners and Networks for Additional Resources
