Project Summary

Conservation easements are recognized as a critical part of stewarding Alberta’s natural landscapes. They allow landowners to realise their conservation goals, while ensuring they receive compensation for the fair market value they surrender in doing so. But what happens when a conservation easement is placed on a parcel where another party holds the sub-surface mineral rights?

The Underlying Concern work was undertaken to help Alberta land trusts make the best decisions for nature within a complex surface / subsurface rights setting. Rather than a prescriptive single recipe, the final report clarifies what exactly are the issues, reports how land trusts in Alberta are currently addressing these, then provides a suite of recommendations at the land trust and government levels to ensure potential impacts on a conserved property due to subsurface mineral access are mitigated to the greatest degree possible.