Possible earliest concept of equity in land held in trust is the depiction of this ancient king (trustor) which grants property back to its previous owner (beneficiary) during his absence, supported by witness testimony (trustee).
In essence and in this case, the king, in place of the later state (trustor and holder of assets at highest position) issues ownership along with past proceeds (equity) back to the beneficiary:[1] On the testimony of Gehazi the servant of Elisha that the woman was the owner of these lands, the king returns all her property to her.
For example, an elder uncle would hold his nephew's land so he would not have to join the king's army.
[2] Land trusts have been actively used in Illinois for over a hundred years and in recent decades have begun to be used in other states.
Robert Pless pioneered the use of the land trust that has been used by many firms throughout the United States since the early 1990s.
[citation needed] Community land trusts trace their conceptual history to England’s Garden Cities, India's Gramdan Movement, and Israel’s cooperative agricultural settlements, the moshavim.
In 1976, Ben Emory, new director of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, had begun to call on Boston lawyer Kingsbury Browne for advice on federal tax issues related to conservation easements.
Browne invited the under-secretary of the Treasury for tax policy, who brought IRS staff Stephen Small.
The land trusts agreed to hire lobbyists and coordinate efforts to influence the legislation, winning expansion of the conservation purposes for which easements would qualify for deductibility.
[citation needed] By 1980, more than 400 local and regional land trusts existed, most still in the North-east, three-fourths with no paid staff, and half with annual budgets under $50,000.
[citation needed] The number of land trusts steadily increased in the United States, with most forming in the late twentieth century.
[citation needed] The goal of conservation trusts is to preserve sensitive natural areas, farmland, ranchland, water sources, cultural resources or notable landmarks.
However, land areas that are particularly valuable in terms of natural or cultural resources or are home to endangered plant or wildlife are good candidates for receiving protection efforts.
Some protect only farmland or ranchland, others forests, mountains, prairies, deserts, wildlife habitat, cultural resources such as archaeological sites or battlefields, urban parks, scenic corridors, coastlines, wetlands or waterways; it is up to each organization to decide what type of land to protect according to its mission.
Some areas have extremely limited public access for the protection of sensitive wildlife, or to allow recovery of damaged ecosystems.
Trusts also provide funding to assist like-minded private buyers or government organizations to purchase and protect the land forever.
[9][page needed] In October 2002, Property and Environment Research Center published a report by Dominic P. Parker entitled Cost-Effective Strategies for Conserving Private Land.
The terms might include requirements to protect the environment and pay the organization royalties on materials extracted.
Although it does not include national or international land trusts in its Census, the LTA estimates another 25 million acres (100,000 km2) in the U.S. have been protected by those organizations.
The largest amount of land protected by local and regional trusts is in the Northeast with 2.9 million acres (12,000 km2), while the fastest growing region between 1998 and 2003 was the Pacific (consisting of California, Nevada, and Hawaii), with protected land increasing 147% to 1.5 million acres (6,100 km2) in 2003.