June 28, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
A Field Guide to Conservation Finance
by Story Clark
Story Clark, a land-conservation strategist, aims to educate people who are passionate about saving land from development but are unsure how to finance their plans. Her advice covers practical matters such as securing different types of loans and negotiating with sellers, but also describes how and why donors become interested in conserving open spaces, and how land trusts and other organizations can engage their communities.
“I have met bankers, lawyers, accountants, and financiers from around the country who jumped at the chance to blend their careers with their deep passion for land,” she writes. “Conservation finance gives them that chance. It is a portal through which that parallel universe of finance can support the natural one.”
Ms. Clark’s guide discusses how to raise money by soliciting donors, writing grant proposals to foundations, approaching corporations, and borrowing money from banks and other sources. She explains some of the intricacies of such transactions, and offers tips on where to find help and how land trusts can build relationships with people who can help them.
A glossary defines common finance terms, such as balloon-payment mortgage, bridge financing, and title insurance policy, and an appendix lists 26 conservation-loan programs that foundations have established and how to contact them.
Publisher: Island Press, 1718 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20009; (202) 232-7933; fax (202) 234-1328; info@islandpress.org; http://www.islandpress.com; 387 pages; $35; ISBN 1-59726-060-2.
