Protecting nature on private land forever
What we do
For over 50 years, Trust for Nature has worked alongside Victorians to create a future where our native plants and animals can be valued, protected and thriving.
As one of Australia’s oldest conservation organisations, we have unique powers enshrined in legislation to protect Victoria’s natural wonder forever, help meet biodiversity targets locally and globally, and to mitigate the effects of climate change.
In Victoria, Australia’s most developed state, 62% of land is privately owned and 78% of the native vegetation on private land is rare or threatened.
Vast areas of natural habitats for native plants and animals, many unique to Victoria, are under threat from land clearing, overharvesting, changing climate and population growth.
Without the land that provides their homes, species become extinct.
Trust for Nature is committed to practical action, collaboration and innovation to permanently protect, conserve and regenerate private land in Victoria before we lose our most threatened native plants and wildlife forever.
There are a number of ways we protect privately-owned land:
Our Superpower
Conservation Covenants
There is no greater gesture a landowner can make to Victoria’s nature than placing a conservation covenant on their property.
A conservation covenant is a voluntary legal agreement made between a private landholder and Trust for Nature to permanently protect and conserve private land with natural, cultural or scientific values.
Trust for Nature is the only organisation in Victoria empowered by law to place conservation covenants on private land.
People
Focussed
Land Management
At its core, our work depends on good people.
We work in partnership to accelerate private land conservation in Victoria and help landowners protect nature on their property. Covenants are actively cared for by the landholders in accordance with our joint management plan and monitored by Trust for Nature.
To date, we have partnered with more than 1,500 Victorians to protect more than 116,000 hectares of native habitat across the state.
Protecting and restoring nature on private reserves
Trust for Nature also has 42 conservation reserves, some of which are open to the public.
We also buy, hold and sell land of conservation value through our Revolving Fund. This enables us to purchase land that has been degraded or where landscapes are at risk or under threat and protect it with a conservation covenant.
Trust for Nature can then either hold the land in our reserves or sell it on to a suitable buyer on the condition that it is protected by covenant forever.
We protect and restore nature on private land in Victoria.
Forever.
We help mitigate and adapt to climate change
Climate change poses a fundamental long-term threat to biodiversity.
To give wildlife and plants the best chance of adapting to a warmer, more extreme world, we need to urgently safeguard habitat from threats like land clearing, fragmentation and introduced species.
Trust for Nature’s unique power to permanently protect habitat on private land not only helps wildlife adapt, it also helps mitigate climate change by preventing carbon from being released into the atmosphere.
By protecting at a landscape scale, we can prevent fragmentation and achieve resilience at the ecosystem level, providing nature the best chance to respond to climate shock.
Our solutions are tangible and practical
Our work is practical and hands-on.
By collaborating with landholders, covenantors, Traditional Owners, community groups, volunteers, government and other partners who share our vision, we enable Victorians to apply their individual efforts towards a shared vision for a future in which our nature is valued, protected and thriving.