Using legal mechanisms to ensure that wild land is protected for future generations
It would be heart breaking and devastating for nature if current efforts to protect wild land and rewild new areas were torn up and disregarded if ownership of that land changes in the future.
Working with current landowners of large wild and rewilding estates, our Legal Protections for Wild Land project engages land and property law mechanisms across global jurisdictions to ensure that rewilding efforts by current landowners can be protected from future land-use change and degradation.
We have worked with lawyers at Clifford Chance and Burness Paull to develop leasehold structures which will require current and future owners of the land to manage the land in accordance with agreed rewilding principles. These obligations will be enforced by a “guardian” charity or group of charities.
We are currently working with a number of large estates in Scotland to explore the use of these mechanisms and hopefully put them in place over the coming months, and are taking legal advice on similar mechanisms in England, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and the Netherlands.
If you would like more information about our Legal Protections for Wild Land project, please get in contact with our Managing Lawyer, Elsie Blackshaw-Crosby.
