California Conservation Easement Database (CCED)

Conservation easements are legal restrictions created by a contract between a land owner and a qualified agency or organization that are usually based on limiting the future uses of a property to those compatible with open space, conservation, farming or other defined uses. Such easements reduce or remove development opportunities on these lands. The California Conservation Easement Database (CCED) inventories such easements held in perpetuity or for at least 10 years by public and nonprofit organizations. This release of CCED includes most conservation easements, but is incomplete for two large easement holders, the Calif. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife and the California Rangeland Trust. Data sources for CCED include easement holding organizations and records from the Calif. Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) and the Bay Area Open Space Council - note that all easements in California are officially filed with the relevant County Recorder’s office and are public records data. CCED is an element in the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED).

The California Conservation Easement Database (CCED) inventories mainly privately owned lands that have been protected through conservation or open space easements. A separate database (CPAD – the California Protected Areas Database) tracks open lands owned outright (“in fee”) by public agencies and nonprofits. This data set's primary purpose is to support multi-jurisdictional planning and assessment projects, at scales ranging from counties or parts of counties to the entire State of California. CCED should not be used as the basis for official regulatory, legal or other such governmental actions – these types of uses require official land records from county recorders or easement holding agencies in the area of focus.