Trust for Nature

Trust for Nature is a non-profit organisation which works to protect remnant bushland - forever! Trust for Nature's mission is to ensure that all significant natural areas in private ownership in Victoria are conserved.

Over 65% of Victoria is privately owned and 95% of this land has been cleared for agricultural purposes and urban development. Only 5% remains untouched and every year more and more of this remnant native bushland is disappearing. With it, the animals and plants that called it home are rapidly declining in numbers and species.

Trust for Nature focuses on landscape scale conservation using Land Purchase, Conservation Covenants and a Revolving Fund.

History

Established as a body corporate (by the Victorian Conservation Trust Act in 1972), for the first few years Trust for Nature carried out its mission by enabling people to bequeath land or money for conservation and for the purchase of Victoria's threatened, privately owned bush.

In 1978 the act was amended to allow land owners to voluntarily place Conservation Covenants on their land, permanently protecting significant areas of natural bushland. In 1989 the Revolving Fund was added - a mechanism which allows Trust for Nature to acquire noteworthy bushland and sell it again in covenanted form. Most recently, changes in tax laws now support covenantors.

NB: Trust for Nature was formerly known as The Victorian Conservation Trust (and Victoria Conservation Trust). The name was changed in 1995 to Trust for Nature (Victoria) to better reflect the work of the Trust.