About Conservation Real Estate

Conservation Real Estate is a type of real property transaction through which conservation of our planet’s natural heritage occurs. A “Conservation Property” is any property with environmental assets that are conserved through the American Conservation Broker Sales Method. Any property, no matter how degraded its current ecological condition may be, can be a conservation property, appropriately located within the Conserv Marketplace (see below). “Conservation” can span education to easements and include any bona-fide stewardship practice approved by Conserv. 

Conserv believes that at a minimum, the act of listing a property within a conservation marketplace furthers the potential for conservation-minded buyers and sellers to find each other.  Conservation-minded buyer and seller access to each other increases the liklihood that seller investments in conservation will be appropriately rewarded, thus fostering additional conservation-related financial investment. 

Conserv provides a 3-level on-line marketplace for properties found within the continental U.S. 

A Potential Conservation Property is a property that:

• may be submitted for listing by the general public and American Conservation Brokers, and
• is thought to contain environmental assets worthy of future implementation of a Conserv-approved stewardship practice (education to easements).

Note that only members of Conserv can view contact and precise location information for any Potential Conservation Property listing.

A property can be submitted for listing as a Potential Conservation Property by any person at any time.  The property has ”potential conservation” status because Conserv makes no attempt to independently verify information submitted by a landowner. However, listing requirements do include the submission of a description of the “environmental asset(s)” of a property and what, if any, conservation practices have or will be implemented. 

A Conservation Property is a property that:

• must be submitted by an American Conservation Broker, and
• must have a pre-existing Conserv-approved Stewardship Practice, or
• the seller will request that a buyer implement an approved practice.

Note that the general public can view 100% of information submitted by an American Conservation Broker.  

A property can be submitted for listing as a Conservation Property only by American Conservation Brokers. Certification as an American Conservation Broker is available via an on-line curriculum found on this site. A property has “conservation” status because the certified broker or agent has assured that a stewardship practice approved by Conserv has been or will be implemented via a sale transaction. Listing requirements include a “bioassessment screening” and “stewardship practices”.  Because some form of conservation,  as approved by Conserv and agreed to by a seller, is ensured via the Conservation Property Sales Method, Conserv only features these properties on its homepage.  

Finally, a property can be submitted by a conservation organization for listing as a Priority Conservation Property. The property has “priority status” because it is known to contain or be located near rare or endangered species or is located within a special ecological region or meets other criteria as approved by Conserv. The priority property marketplace is password protected and only available to individuals and organizations working within the conservation field approved by Conserv. This portion of the marketplace is currently under development.

Information provided by Conserv about listed properties does not constitute an offer to sell or buy.