Land and Climate Program

After investing decades of work and billions of dollars in conservation in the U.S., land trusts are increasingly concerned about the impacts of climate change. Land trusts can help mitigate climate change by doing what we’ve always done: conserving more land and stewarding it effectively.

The Land Trust Alliance provides resources, training and tools to help land trusts learn how climate change will impact their region; plan for change and resilience; and adapt management practices for agriculture and wildlife habitat.

How we're accomplishing our goals.

The Alliance has presented climate resilience science to hundreds of land trusts through online and in-person workshops and seminars and helped 37 land trusts integrate resilience science into their strategic conservation plans.
We collaborate with leading experts in applied resilience science and natural climate solutions, such as the Open Space Institute, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, The Nature Conservancy and Wildlife Conservation Society.
To help land trusts monetize carbon sequestered on their lands (including avoided emissions), we provide information, training and grants to advance land trusts’ participation in carbon markets.
We convene, inform and organize the nation’s land trusts, our conservation partners, climate coalitions and other allies to educate lawmakers and government agency officials about the land sector’s potential to mitigate up to 21 percent of the country’s net annual greenhouse gas emissions.

The Land and Climate Program is funded by a generous catalyst grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

The Land Trust Alliance and Open Space Institute operate the Land and Climate Grant Program. The program aims to support and build the capacity of land trusts and other groups that conserve and steward land to integrate climate change into land protection and management decisions.

The program supports the development of climate-informed land conservation, stewardship or communications plans that address one or more of the following issues: habitat resilience, carbon mitigation or community adaptation to climate impacts such as stronger storms, flooding, drought, fire or extreme heat.

The 2024 grant round is open!

Applications will be accepted from now until May 17. The Alliance and Open Space Institute want to help make sure you're able to build the best application possible. Click here to view the recording of the online information session held on April 10th.

Program staff will also offer three virtual “office hours” sessions, where applicants can ask questions and receive feedback on project proposals. Applicants can schedule a 20-minute individual consultation with program staff on one of the dates listed below.

· Office Hours Session 1: April 23, 1-3 PM Eastern

· Office Hours Session 2: April 25, 2-4 PM Eastern

· Office Hours Session 3: April 30, 1-3 PM Eastern

2023 funded projects

The Land Trust Alliance and the Open Space Institute provided $450,000 in grants to help communities better plan for climate change and its impacts.

Recipient land trusts used those funds to incorporate climate science into their strategic land protection and stewardship efforts, harnessing the land’s natural capacity to capture and store carbon. Such work enables people, plants and animals to better adapt to a changing climate.

See 2023 grant awardees