The difficulty of integrating land trusts in land use planning

We examine land-owning organizations’ choice of strategy for steering spatial development. There are two highly visible strategies to influence land use. The first one, acquisition, is direct; it consists of either gaining outright ownership of the land, or various forms of partial title, including conservation easements. The second one, regulation, is indirect; it relies on the legal instruments of public policy, in particular land use planning, to influence the behavior of landowners. Often linking these two strategies in a coherent way is a challenge. On the one hand, local authorities are empowered by the law to plan for conservation, but they are not well equipped to do so (lack of capacity, expertise, political will). On the other hand, many small conservation NGOs are active at the micro level with little concern for supra-local considerations.Focusing on an important private conservation effort in Southern Quebec, this article seeks to better understand land-owning organizations’ position toward land use planning. It shows how conservation NGOs, which rely on property rights to influence land use, position themselves within the broader regulatory context and attempt to coordinate their action at a regional scale in order to complement their acquisition strategy.

► An important private conservation effort is developing in Southern Quebec.
► Through their acquisitions, small land owning NGOs impact land use planning.
► Linking an acquisition strategy with a land use planning strategy coherently is a challenge.
► A supra-local NGO can build a bridge between local NGOs and land use planning.
► Integrating acquisitions and land use planning results in improved conservation.