Policy Options

• Management Agreements:
  • Kansas § 32-962: Allows the state to enter into prelisting conservation agreements, safe harbor agreements, and no take agreements with private landowners. 
  • Hawaii §195 D-21-23: Authorizes the creation of voluntary habitat conservation plans or safe harbor agreements and prohibits state agencies from imposing new requirements on a landowner who has entered such an agreement or plan. 

• Financial payments:
  • Oklahoma §29-3-312: Authorizes the Department of Wildlife Conservation to establish contracts with private landowners, including incentives, to encourage wildlife habitat conservation.  
  • Hawaii S.B.2472 / S.B.3162 (Introduced, 2024): Authorizes the creation of a conservation bank and conservation in-lieu mitigation program to enhance the recovery and survival of T & E species. Provides compensatory mitigation for projects where there are unavoidable impacts to T & E species.
• Tax incentives:
  • North Carolina §105‑277.15: Creates the Wildlife Conservation Land Program which gives a tax break to landowners for conserving habitat for rare species.
  • South Carolina §50-15-50: Requires the Department to create criteria for designating land as a certified management area for endangered species in order to qualify a taxpayer for an income tax credit. 
  • Washington § 84.36.255: Exempts improvements to real and personal property that benefit fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, or water quantity from taxation if the improvements are included in a plan approved by a conservation district.
  • Colorado §39-22-522: Provides a tax credit incentive for up to 90 percent of the donated value of a landowner’s conservation easement.
  • Vermont §32-3752: Establishes a “reserve forestland” category within the state’s property tax incentives under which qualifying parcels can be enrolled if the land is managed to attain older forest values and functions.