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Type: Journal Article
Author(s): A. R. Rissman; J. Owley; M. R. Shaw; B. Thompson
Publication Date: January 20, 2015

Perpetual conservation easements (CEs) are popular for restricting development and land use, but their fixed terms create challenges for adaptation to climate change. The increasing pace of environmental and social change demands adaptive conservation instruments. To examine the adaptive potential of CEs, we surveyed 269 CEs and interviewed 73 conservation organization employees. Although only 2% of CEs mentioned climate change, the majority of employees were concerned about climate change impacts. CEs share the fixed-boundary limits typical of protected areas with additional adaptation constraints due to permanent terms on private lands. CEs often have multiple, potentially conflicting purposes that protect against termination but complicate decisions about principled, conservation-oriented adaptation. Monitoring is critical for shaping adaptive responses, but only 35% of CEs allowed organizations to conduct ecological monitoring. In addition, CEs provided few requirements or incentives for active stewardship of private lands. We found four primary options for changing land use restrictions, each with advantages and risks: CE amendment, management plan revisions, approval of changes through discretionary consent, and updating laws or policies codified in the CE. Conservation organizations, funders, and the Internal Revenue Service should promote processes for principled adaptation in CE terms, provide more active stewardship of CE lands, and consider alternatives to the CE tool. Copyright and Photocopying: © 2014 The Authors, Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

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Citation: Rissman, A. R., J. Owley, M. R. Shaw, and B. Thompson. 2015. Adapting conservation easements to climate change. Conservation Letters, v. 8, no. 1, p. 68-76. 10.1111/conl.12099. http://www.landtrustalliance.org/climate-change-toolkit/adapting-conservation-easements-to-climate-change.

Cataloging Information

Regions:
Alaska    California    Eastern    Great Basin    Hawaii    Northern Rockies    Northwest    Rocky Mountain    Southern    Southwest    National
Keywords:
  • administrative discretion
  • climate change
  • climate change adaptation
  • Colorado
  • conservation easements
  • conservation easements
  • environmental policy and law
  • Indiana
  • land trusts
  • land use
  • New York
  • private land conservation
  • private lands
  • protected areas
  • South Carolina
  • Wisconsin
Tall Timbers Record Number: 31455Location Status: Not in fileCall Number: AvaialbleAbstract Status: Okay, Fair use, Reproduced by permission
Record Last Modified:
Record Maintained By: FRAMES Staff (https://www.frames.gov/contact)
FRAMES Record Number: 53915

This bibliographic record was either created or modified by Tall Timbers and is provided without charge to promote research and education in Fire Ecology. The E.V. Komarek Fire Ecology Database is the intellectual property of Tall Timbers.