Welcome to the start of your journey to becoming a better partner to your whole community. This tool will help you organize your learning and grow critical Diversity, Equity and Inclusion competencies, no matter where you are in your learning journey. Whether you need to take the necessary first steps, deepen your current efforts or accelerate progress, you will find a flexible, adaptable roadmap you can tailor to your personal and organizational needs. It is designed to help foster your continuous growth in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and to help you incorporate its lessons to enhance your conservation work.

The Framework authors carefully selected many excellent resources that are especially relevant to help land trusts prepare for, develop and maintain strong relationships with new partners. As you use the Framework, we hope that you will share your feedback so the Land Trust Alliance can incorporate your experiences into future training and resources, including the Framework itself.

Learn more about the Framework and why it was built by watching the Making the Most of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Framework and Resources for Change webinar recording.

Land trusts are, at the heart, community-based organizations. Some land trusts have already been working creatively to expand the ways in which they engage and partner with broader segments of their communities.

Recently, we have heard from many of you, our members, that you are interested in learning more to inform your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion journeys. Many land trusts share the conviction that such work is important, but don’t necessarily know where to start or what to do next. The Framework was created with you in mind.

Alongside you, the Alliance is committed to its own organizational journey, which we are undertaking with humility, patience, and the understanding that while this work is critically important, it is not easy. We are on this path together with our members — both the early adopters leading in this work and those who are just getting started. We are grateful for the guidance and knowledge of those with relevant professional and lived experiences and we continue to be guided by core principles established in our 2020 Common Ground Implementation Framework.

From all of us at the Alliance, we wish you the best on this journey of learning and growth and look forward to working together in a shared commitment to the co-creation of a more inclusive, equitable and resilient future for land conservation.

Representing the breadth of our more than 950 land trust members as well as affiliate members across the nation, the Land Trust Alliance is working toward a visionary, inclusive land trust sector that connects more people to land and nature and better serves the diversity of our communities.

Land conservation is essential to the health and vitality of natural and human communities. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to connect with land and benefit from it, and that our work is at its best and most enduring when it engages, includes and benefits all people — especially centering the leadership, expertise and voices of Black, Indigenous and people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities and others who have been and continue to be excluded and marginalized by our sector. 

The work necessary to embed a community-centered conservation approach and instill the principles of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion into every aspect of conservation is critical as the land trust community considers who its leaders, supporters, staff, volunteers and advocates will be in the future.

We are committed to helping the land trust community evolve to better meet and provide solutions to the challenges of our times, including inequitable access to nature and to all the benefits that healthy, conserved lands and waters provide.