Conservation Easements in Alberta

Ecological Gifts Program

Canada's Ecological Gift Program is a federal one that supports gifts of land or interested in land (e.g. conservation easements) of ecologically sensitive land. This program supplements the work of land trusts and municipalities that accept these donations by providing a more beneficial treatment of the tax receipts landowners receive for their gift. Basically donors of ecologically sensitive gifts are able to use more of their tax receipt over a longer period of time that donors or other gifts.

To qualify as an ecological gift the land must be in an area identified, designated or protected by a local, provincial, territorial, national or international system or body as ecologically significant or ecologically important; have natural spaces of significance to the environment in which they are located; are sites that have significant current ecological value, or potential for enhanced ecological value, as a result of their proximity to other significant properties; be municipal or rural lands that are zoned or designated for biodiversity objectives; be natural buffers around environmentally sensitive areas such as water bodies, streams or wetlands; and have areas or sites that contribute to the maintenance of biodiversity or Canada's environmental heritage.

The eco-gift process can take up to a year to complete.