Unique Partnership To Conserve
Western Lands And Livelihoods

SAN ANTONIO — A unique partnership of cattlemen, conservationists and Western governors has released a report supporting the creation and use of publicly funded "Purchase of Development Rights" to protect rapidly disappearing farm and ranch land and to conserve agricultural lands and wildlife habitat in the West.

"Purchase of Development Rights: Conserving Lands, Preserving Western Livelihoods" is authored jointly by the Western Governors' Association, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, and the Trust for Public Land.

The Western Governors' Association is an independent, non-profit organization representing the governors of 18 states, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana islands. The association identifies and addresses key policy and governance issues in natural resources, the environment, human services, economic development, international relations and public management.

The Trust for Public Land, established in 1972, specializes in conservation real estate, applying its expertise in negotiations, public finance, and law to protect land for people to enjoy as parks, greenways, community gardens, urban playgrounds and wilderness.

The report details the ways the PDR both helps Western landowners achieve personal and financial goals and helps the public realize goals of land protection. The report describes existing state and local PDR programs in the West, and explains how landowner-initiated PDR transactions operate and how other states and communities can start PDR programs. Many public and nonprofit sources of information about PDR programs are referenced in the publication.

Through PDR programs, the public provides cash payment to a landowner for the value of the development rights associated with a land parcel. The owner still owns the land, but is compensated for relinquishing the right to develop it as real estate, permitting farming and other traditional uses of the land to continue.

For landowners, PDR allows farming and ranching communities to protect their agricultural heritage and livelihood in the face of growing development pressures and financial challenges. For the public, PDR programs enable land conservation at reduced expense, as the cost of PDR is less than outright purchase of land, and costs associated with subsequent management of the land remain the responsibility of the landowner.