Land Trust Standards and Practices

The Land Trust Standards and Practices are guidelines for the responsible operation of a land trust, which is run legally, ethically, and in the public interest and conducts a sound program of land transactions and stewardship.

The Land Trust Alliance originally developed the Standards in 1989 at the urging of land trusts, who believe a strong land trust community depends on the credibility and effectiveness of all its members. They have been revised in 2004.

The newly formed Land Trust Accreditation Commission, An Independent Program of the Land Trust Alliance, will provide independent verification of a the 42 indicator practices from Land Trust Standards and Practices that show a land trust's ability to operate in an ethical, legal and technically sound manner and ensure the long-term protection of land in the public interest.

Adoption Requirements

Land Trust Alliance currently requires all of its Land Trust Members to adopt the Land Trust Standards and Practices. We have put together a set of steps detailing how a land trust can complete the adoption process.

Download a copy of the newly revised Land Trust Standards and Practices, or order a printed copy.

Click on the icon next to the document you want to view or right click and choose "save target as" to save a copy to your computer.	Copyright © Land Trust Alliance. All rights reserved
Land Trust Standards and Practices	242KB
Sample Board Adoption Resolution	33KB
Background to the 2004 Revisions of Land Trust Standards and Practices	164KB
Quick Reference Guide: How Revised Standards and Practices Compare to the Previous Edition	37KB

Resources for Implementing Land Trust Standards and Practices

Land Trust Alliance will continue to provide instructional tools to help land trusts understand and implement the specific practices.

• Look for workshops at the Land Trust Alliance Rally and throughout the year.
• A curriculum specifically targeted at helping land trusts implement the practices is being developed.
• LTAnet - Land Trust Alliance's digital library for members and partners contains a large number of documents specifically written to help with implementation.
• Review the Standards and Practices Guidebook, and other Land Trust Alliance publications.
• Evaluate how well your organization is implementing Land Trust Standards and Practices with Assessing Your Organization.

For more information, please contact Director of Standards and Research Sylvia Bates: sbates@lta.org or (603) 279-8890.

updated 7/23/07