This paper examines the emerging structure and culture of Canadian land trust organizations that set aside private land for conservation purposes. While a number of researchers in both the US and Canada have viewed land trusts as privatized conservation mechanisms, a closer examination of their social, economic and ecological objectives demonstrates that land trusts inhabit the space between the public and private sector in a manner characteristic of social economy organizations. However, a comparison of the structure and ethos of the Canadian land trust movement to the ideals embraced by the social economy sector reveals that while land trusts have many of the foundational elements of the social economy, they need to engage more consciously and broadly with civil society if they are to fully fulfill their conservation and social mandates.
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