Secure your environmental legacy

Finding the right path for every place

BioDiversity Legacy helps landholders, families, communities and donors find practical pathways to protect land for nature – permanently.

We connect people with established conservation options, help overcome legal and practical barriers, and develop new approaches where existing pathways do not meet their needs.

Our three core pathways are:

1. referral to an established conservation organisation or protection mechanism
2. transfer to a locally governed Local Landholding Entity
3. transfer or bequest of land to BioDiversity Legacy

Our role is to help people understand their options and move from the intention to protect land towards a secure and enduring outcome.

Local Landholding Entity pathway

With the support of leading legal organisations, BioDiversity Legacy pioneered the Local Landholding Entity (LLE) model — a secure structure that enables land to be removed from the private property market and transferred into locally led, not-for-profit ownership, often with charitable status.

An LLE is established as a Company Limited by Guarantee. It has no shareholders and cannot be owned by an individual or group. Instead, it is governed by its members under a constitution designed to protect the land and its purpose over the long term.

This structure allows land to be held in community ownership, enabling people and groups to access and care for it without owning it personally. Each LLE can be tailored to the landholder’s or donor’s vision, the needs of the land and local circumstances.

Governance

LLEs are governed by people and community organisations with relevant skills, knowledge and connections. They operate independently at a local scale, with stewardship arrangements that encourage collaboration between community groups, conservation organisations and environmental specialists.

BioDiversity Legacy supports the establishment and transfer process through guidance, resources and information. We can also connect LLEs with people and organisations in our network to support effective governance and long-term stewardship.

Stewardship

With the land held in a well-governed land ownership structure, the stewardship entity can be under a more relaxed structure, e.g. a community not-for-profit such as an Incorporated Association.

Flexible stewardship arrangements allow for the inevitable ebbs and flows that occur with individual/community stewardship groups, including stewardship changes over time (e.g. from a landowner to a Traditional Custodian group).

Rather than imposing stewardship, we support grassroots organisations where place-based, local knowledge is combined with specialised advice and partnerships to provide the best care for the land.

Stewards may include Traditional Owners, landholders, community groups (e.g. Landcare) and others, as appropriate.

Selection criteria

For us to move forward, properties and projects need to have collaborative support, by which we mean the ongoing involvement of local groups such as Landcare, Traditional Custodians, environmental NGOs, councils, ecological specialists and/or other relevant parties – or the potential to build these connections.

There are a few key filters we draw from to make sure we can support your project. Please contact us to learn more.