Project Summary

'Area-based Conservation' refers to the practice of identifying a geographic area and implementing specific enduring land use measures that safeguard that area's natural systems and features. The Convention on Biological Diversity has identified two categories of area-based conservation: 'Protected Areas' and 'Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures' (OECMs). International and national databases have been established to assess and catalogue all area-based conservation efforts.

While this seems like an obvious domain for private land conservation initiatives to be highlighted, little attention has been paid to Privately Protected Areas and Private OECMs. The Corvus Centre created three guides to help land trusts navigate this realm:

• A PRIMER on what area-based conservation is and how it applies to private land conservation (Area-Based Conservation Designations: A Primer for Canadian Land Trusts)

• A decision-support guide for ASSESSING whether a privately-conserved parcel is a Privately Protected Area or a Private OECM (Designating Private Area-Based Conservation Sites: A Decision-Support Guide for Canadian Land Trusts), and

• A guide to REPORTING privately-conserved parcels into the national and international databases (Reporting Private Area-Based Conservation Sites: A Guide to the Databases for Canadian Land Trusts)