OLTA: Greenlands Conservation Partnership Program Grant

OLTA: Greenlands Conservation Partnership Program Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Ontario Land Trust Alliance
Amount: C $5,000 - C $500,000
Last Updated: January 09, 2026

Summary

The OLTA: Greenlands Conservation Partnership Program aims to conserve Ontario's vital ecological areas by supporting projects that acquire and manage sensitive lands. This initiative focuses on enhancing the availability of green spaces and trails for public enjoyment while promoting biodiversity. Eligible activities include land acquisition, restoration, stewardship, and outreach efforts. By partially matching private contributions, this program reinforces conservation partnerships and contributes to climate change objectives, ensuring a healthier environment for future generations.

Overview

Greenlands Conservation Partnership Program Conservation of Ontario’s rich biodiversity is a shared responsibility. The Conservation Partnership (CP) program is a plan to conserve ecologically important natural areas and contribute to the government’s climate change objectives. The Province committed in the Fall 2020 budget to partially match private contributions to the Conservation Partnership with the Recipient. The government is committed to strengthening conservation partnerships to preserve more areas of significant ecological importance, protect natural areas and promote the importance of healthy, natural spaces. The current funding cycle of CP represents year 2 of a four-year fund, with year 2 focusing on supporting projects that acquire and manage ecologically sensitive lands. Applications are being accepted in order to consider support for: Land acquisition – fee simple or conservation easement agreement.Associated costs of land acquisition.Restoration and stewardship costs on properties secured through this program, in this or previous rounds. Outreach events focused on increasing the availability of green spaces and trails for the people of Ontario to enjoy on properties secured through this program Program Objective The objective of the Program is to increase the protection of Ontario’s ecologically important natural landscapes and secondarily, to increase the availability of green spaces and trails for the people of Ontario to enjoy. A Securement Project may be defined as a parcel or grouping of parcels that may or may not share the same landowner and may consist of either conservation easement agreement or fee simple acquisition or a combination. Transaction types are purchases, donations and split receipts. Securement projects may or may not have elements of stewardship/ restoration/ outreach included. Securement projects require a completed Property Management Plan within one year of the property closing date. A Stewardship/Restoration/Outreach Project may be identified as implementing an activity identified in the Property Management Plan, management actions as identified through a Conservation Easement Agreement, urgent priority actions addressing a safety hazard or biodiversity threat, or developing a Property Management Plan for those properties secured through the GCPP between January 1, 2021 and May 1, 2021. Stewardship/restoration/outreach projects do not include any element of securement. Evaluation Criteria: Projects will be evaluated against the project eligibility and ranked based on the following priorities or co-benefits including: Takes place in an area recognized nationally, provincially, regionally or locally as significant. This can include Areas of National or Scientific Interest, Provincially Significant Wetlands, Key Biodiversity Areas, Natural Heritage designation, Important Bird Areas, RAMSAR Wetlands of Significance, Biosphere Reserves, etc.Support recovery of SARContribute to climate change adaptation and mitigationProvision of Ecosystem ServicesOpportunities for completion of Ecological GiftsContributions to human health and wellbeingProvides recreational Trails/Public Access.Stewardship, Restoration and Outreach Projects will also be evaluated based on additional criteria such as:How well does the Project link to the property management plan for the property?How well does the Project address threats to biodiversity on the property?

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. To be eligible for funding, an applicant must be:A Member of Ontario Land Trust Alliance in good standing with OLTA; andA land trust operating in Ontario.If applicants are requesting funding for a project for which the eligible recipient is partnering with a non-eligible group, the following must accompany the application:A partnership agreement between the parties specifying the roles and responsibilities of each organization for the project.A letter to OLTA specifying which organization is responsible for the various costs, along with any other relevant information required to evaluate the project. Note: only costs incurred by the eligible recipient will be considered.Organizations may submit up to a maximum of three applications To be eligible, a project must meet all the following criteria:Have been identified as priorities through systematic conservation planning consistent with the Canadian Land Trust Standards and Practices (2019);Contribute to connectivity of the existing protected and conserved areas network and other natural spaces, such as areas that contribute to structural or functional connectivity through natural linkages, buffers, infilling, or stepping stones; or areas identified as ecological corridors in strategic conservation plans;Meet, or are likely to meet, pan-Canadian standards for protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures as defined in the Pathway to Canada Target 1 Decision Support Tool (DST); andHave matching contributions at a rate of a 1.5 non-provincial investment for every dollar of provincial funds.This round of funding will support the following:The acquisition cost of fee simple land properties.Purchases, donations and split receipts are eligible transaction types.Associated costs of acquisition - fee simple or conservation easement agreement.Stewardship, Restoration and Outreach costs.