Enabling Conditions for Private Land Conservation in Latin America

Private land conservation (PLC) is a growing field of practice increasingly recognized for its contribution to realizing enduring and connected conservation efforts that deliver environmental and social outcomes at scale. Latin America has a long history of voluntary private land conservation and has made significant advancements in PLC in recent years. The policies, tools, and strategies that help landholders advance voluntary conservation initiatives across the region must be better understood, and strategic opportunities to support and advance this practice must be identified, to help conserve the region’s biodiversity and meet climate resilience goals. This paper summarizes the findings of an investigation by the International Land Conservation Network (ILCN) in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. Its primary author is Zachary Hummel, with the assistance of Henry Tepper, Hernán Mladinic, Chandni Navalkha, and Jim Levitt of the International Land Conservation Network at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy; and Michael Pressman, Pilar Barrera Rey, and their colleagues across Latin America at The Nature Conservancy. It is informed by 33 formal interviews conducted with land conservation practitioners and decision-makers leading private land conservation organizations and initiatives at all scales in 14 Latin American countries. The report outlines the major current legal, financial, and institutional frameworks for private land conservation in Latin America, identifies the primary challenges and opportunities to strengthen these frameworks in specific countries, and offers recommendations for advancing enabling conditions across the region.