Project Summary

Conservation easements are a critical element of the ability for Canadian and American landowners in the grasslands to engage in the carbon credit market. However, this is a new and potentially complex application of conservation easements, creating challenges for carbon market designers and potential landowner participants. Foundational research is needed to fully understand the possibilities and the pitfalls.

The Corvus Centre was asked by a collaborative of Viresco Solutions, Ducks Unlimited (U.S.), and Shell Nature-based Solutions to undertake research in eight U.S. states regarding the market and practices associated with conservation easements, and how best to engage landowners.

Corvus focused its research on

• Easement Supply & Demand Analysis and Summary

• Leverage Potential and Compatibility

• Landowner Perceptions, Interest, and Willingness to Engage

The resultant information was used by the collaboration to identify possible options for scaling the use of conservation easements in a carbon finance context across the U.S. grasslands.

The Corvus Centre is currently reformatting much of the research into public-facing documents to inform this conservation effort in Canada.