Resource Library

Overview

The Ontario Land Trust Alliance Resource Centre is a hub for learning, connecting and growing for land trust volunteers, staffs, and board members, as well as other conservationists. The resource Library contains documents, events, trainings and other materials related to the topics most important to land trust organizations. The resources presented on these pages contains information to help land trusts find, use and share information, case studies and examples of each Standards & Procedures, to support their organization’s compliance with the Canadian Land Trust Standards & Practices. As well as additional resources needed to support commitment and excellence in the land trust community.

The section in the Resource Library for S&P includes information on each standard, and sample documents from the land trust community in Ontario. The section for Additional resources includes all relevant information needed that will help accelerate the pace of land conservation, and provide the resources land trusts and their organizations need so they never feel alone.

This tool aims to be sharing platform where land trusts can review and contribute additional materials as well as share and use the documents and templates provided.  We aim to maintain and grow this collection of resources through continued review and contribution from our land trust members and affiliated organizations, ensuring up-to-date referencing material & representation across our wonderfully diverse land trust community. If you are interested in contributing documents to the resource library, please fill out the submission form in the tab below entitled “Document Submission”.

To navigate this tool, please click one of the desired standard tabs on the left to be directed to general resources for the standard and specific resources for each enclosed practice. If you require more information on the background of the project, please refer to the information presented in the tabs below or contact: admin@olta.ca.

User Responsibility

All reference material within this library are reproduced “as is” with consent from their contributing organizations. Their accuracy and completeness is not guaranteed, and they are provided to you as a user entirely at your own risk. OLTA is sharing these resources in good faith and is not responsible for any errors or omissions.  Moreover, information contained herein is not intended to provide legal or accounting advice of any kind. Additionally, samples or templates are constantly evolving, therefore, we encourage users to periodically check original sources for the latest models or versions.

Background Information

The Canadian Land Trust Alliance (CLTA) created the Canadian Land Trust Standards and Practices(S&P) to help current and future land trusts maintain public faith and create/maintain long-term land conservation programs, ensuring their properties will be protected in perpetuity.  The S&Ps are a list of ethical and technical guidelines, revolving around the responsible running of a land trust organization. The CLTA’s S&Ps are originally based off of and licensed from the S&Ps created by the United States Land Trust Alliance (LTA). After a 15-month consultation period, an updated version of the Canadian S&Ps was released, following the 2017 revisions published by the LTA, informed by conservationists and land trust professionals across America.

To aid Ontario’s land trust community, this website-based tool has been developed to provide reference material for OLTA members to utilize while formulating various policies and practices to comply with the new S&Ps. Sample documents and templates were collected from OLTA’s own publications and documentation, from land trust members across Ontario and from other associated sources of importance for land trusts.  On a rolling basis, these documents were categorized based on file type, author, date, organization, associated standard and practice. These materials are published documents, board reviewed policies or informal guides. Documents have been reviewed or recommended by an expert committee as relevant to Ontario’s land trust community.

Acknowledgements

The OLTA Resource Library and the Ontario S&Ps Resource Tool was created in collaboration with OLTA staff and land trust community members, who dedicated their time to providing example documents and for allowing OLTA to publish them with this web-based tool. Additionally, we would like to extend thanks to OLTA expert volunteers who reviewed a wide array of collected documents to ensure relevance to our wonderful land trust community.

This tool was created with the support of the Canada Summer Jobs program, and the Land Trust Conservation Fund.

Document Submission

Document Submission Form

  • TitleAuthorYearS&P Category 
  • Drop files here or

Canadian Land Trust Standards & Practices

The Canadian Land Trust Standards and Practices are organized into 12 standards and supporting practices to advance the standards. The practices are guidelines; there are many ways for a land trust to implement the practices, depending on the size and scope of the organization.

Versions:

The Canadian Land Trust Standards & Practices (2019)

The Canadian Land Trust Standards & Practices (2005)