The Land Trust Alliance's New Accreditation Program

Abstract

The use of conservation easements has risen dramatically over the past twenty years, resulting in the protection of millions of acres of conservation land and historic properties. The land trust community-a diverse collection of thousands of individual land trusts, big and smallhas helped drive this success. Unfortunately, a wave of scandals threatens to jeopardize these accomplishments. A recent series of articles by the Washington Post exposed abuses by the world's largest land trust, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), including the apparent exploitation of tax benefits garnered from donation of conservation easements that involved excessive easement appraisals or land with dubious conservation value. Subsequent investigations by Congress and the Internal Revenue Service revealed additional problems, including insufficient monitoring and enforcement of conservation easements, and sounded calls for broad legislative and regulatory reform. The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation proposed draconian restrictions on tax deductions for gifts of land that could lead to a sharp reduction in donated conservation easements. In an effort to ameliorate these concerns and avoid federal intervention, the Land Trust Alliance (LTA) - the umbrella organization for the nation's land trusts-launched a new accreditation program for individual land trusts. The accreditation program aims to restore the public confidence, assure long-term protection of conservation easements, and deter governmental intrusion. This Comment discusses the concern among some in the land trust community that top-down oversight will drive smaller land trusts out of existence and erode or