Economic Return

Limited Conservation Development provides income through development created through careful planning and design to result in objectively measurable conservation outcomes by integrating development with the protection and restoration of water and biological resources.

Background Information:

The United States is losing approximately 8,000 acres of wildlife habitat, agricultural land, and open space each day to development and sprawl. While preservation of our remaining open spaces is becoming a top national priority, the population of the U.S. is projected to increase by 40% by the year 2050. Thus the question for society is not “will additional development occur,” but rather “where will we put it, and how will we do it.” Limited conservation development is one effective means to guide development into appropriate areas in sensitive landscapes.

Limited Conservation Development (LCD) is environmentally sensitive land development which helps to finance land conservation. LCD will be utilized in MMA SLI projects only in cases where it is fully compatible with our overall conservation and restoration objectives. Through careful planning and design, LCD can effectively provide objectively measurable conservation outcomes by integrating development with the protection and restoration of water and biological resources.

All MMA SLI projects derive value from the conservation and restoration of critical environmental features on our properties. Implementation of LCD will be conducted only in a context within which the property as a whole is managed for these restoration and conservation objectives.

Accordingly, all MMA SLI projects will:

• Avoid development of any unique conservation resources, including rare ecological communities, highly productive agricultural or silvicultural lands, and historic sites.
• Permanently protect (via deed restrictions or conservation easement) against all forms of development on a minimum of 85% of the project land area.
• Use development to generate financial endowments commensurate with long term conservation management requirements.