The Land Trust Accreditation Commission was established as an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance in 2006. The program was designed by a Program Design Steering Committee formed by the Alliance in 2004. The Steering Committee gathered input from land trusts via interviews, surveys, focus groups, conference calls, web dialogues, and other venues and used this input to inform the design of the program.
The Alliance board approved the Steering Committee’s recommendation to create a voluntary land trust accreditation program to be managed by a Commission incorporated as a subsidiary of the Alliance in September 2005. The Commission was incorporated in April 2006. Today, there are over 450 accredited land trusts across the country.
Goals and Objectives
The primary goals of the accreditation program are to:
- Build and recognize strong land trusts;
- Foster public confidence in land conservation; and,
- Help ensure the long-term protection of land.
Through accreditation, the Commission believes these additional goals can be achieved.
