Integrating Private Lands in Large Park Networks

The Greenbelt Foundation’s latest report Integrating Private Lands in Large Park Networks, in partnership with Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) and Cambium Indigenous Professional Services, examines the potential for incorporating private lands into large park and trail systems with the benefits of it being in near urban areas to increase greenspace access for all.  

The report highlights key recommendations to update existing government conservation and land securement programs for private lands such as the Ecological Gifts Program and Natural Heritage Conservation Program, to reflect these goals.

The report highlights key recommendations to update existing government conservation and land securement programs for private lands such as the Ecological Gifts Program and Natural Heritage Conservation Program, to reflect these goals. Additional recommendations urge governments, First Nations and community partners, such as land trusts and conservation authorities, to unite strategies and programs to conserve biodiversity, increase access to greenspace and create opportunities for Indigenous Peoples to connect with and uphold their rights and responsibilities to their traditional and treaty lands by targeting private lands for inclusion in large parks networks.

Building upon the challenges identified in the Foundation’s 2019 and 2022 reports; State of Large Parks in Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe and Improving Access to Large Parks in Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe, which identified a trending loss in park lands, this latest report also utilizes five case studies to showcase successful initiatives related to private lands that address landowner concerns related to public safety and liability, the integration of formal land conservation programs with traditional cultural ties and practices to the land, and balancing public use and ecosystem health.

Key Recommendations: 

• Government and other funding agencies should prioritize programs such as the Land Trusts Conservation Fund to support land donations and conservation easements to protect land and provide access to nature in areas with high private ownership. These programs must also formally recognize Indigenous Rights and Responsibilities, creating opportunities for Indigenous Peoples to connect to the land. 
• Targeted outreach with landowners of properties that are of prime importance for access or ecological connectivity in a large park network may reduce the educational and resource barriers for landowners to find and apply for programs and could also be used to educate about Indigenous histories and create access for hunting, harvesting, and fishing Rights and Responsibilities.  
• Government and land trust stewardship programs based on tax incentives should provide other benefits for private landowners such as First Nations who are already tax exempt.  
• Government and other funding agencies should enhance incentives for private landowners to participate in conservation.  
• Governments and other funding agencies should consider new programs to support landowners in enhancing their properties to make them eligible for land stewardship programs with habitat quality criteria such as the federal Ecological Gifts Program or Ontario’s Conservation Land Tax Incentive Program. Programs would support Canada’s recent commitment to restore thirty per cent (30%) of degraded lands.  
• Governments and land trusts are encouraged to develop relationships with Indigenous Nations and Communities affiliated with the lands that are donated or sold for stewardship or placed under a conservation easement to ensure proper engagement. 
• Land trusts should follow the Canadian Land Trust Alliance’s Standards and Practices; but, in the absence of detailed standards for Indigenous engagement and respect for Indigenous Rights, land trusts must voluntarily adopt and adhere to existing guiding documents, such as the IUCN’s Guidelines for Privately Protected Areas and relevant Rights and obligations from the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in their decision-making.  
• Government or other funding agencies can prioritize existing and create new programs to support Indigenous land trusts and Indigenous engagement in other private land conservation.  
• Government programs for private land stewardship should include public access as an objective, where ecosystems can tolerate the disturbance, in alignment with Indigenous Rights and Responsibilities.
• Land trusts should expand their purpose to include public access to nature, especially in southern Canada where there is less public land.  

Funding for this project has been generously provided by Parks Canada and the Government of Ontario.