Community landcare is where community-led, locally-relevant solutions to address local challenges and improve places, environments, and economies are developed and implemented.

Landcare communities, through cooperation and coordination, advance their interests more effectively than if neighbors and community members act independently.  Landcare communities are grassroots, locally led efforts. They generally have an interest in democratic participation and promoting social justice, ensuring that economic and environmental opportunities are fair and equitable.

Cooperation and partnerships allow groups to realize economies of scale and develop niche markets reflecting local cultural traditions and environmental characteristics.  Strategically identifying and pursuing opportunities that give communities an advantage allows them to compete for capital and markets in an increasingly globalized and interconnected economy.

By focusing on the triple bottom line, landcare communities acknowledge the interdependency of social, economic, and environmental conditions in their community, and take these into consideration in discussing and working towards solutions.  Through the integration of conservation and development, community landcare groups build the social capacity of their community, strengthen their local economies and increase landowner incomes, and put into practice land conservation and management practices for a sustainable future.

Groups and organizations that subscribe to this integrated conservation and development ethic exist around the world.  There is no need to restructure these organizations to be considered a landcare group.  Rather, landcare provides an easily identifiable and proven appeal that organizations can use to increase their visibility, their reach across traditional boundaries, and the expansion of their networking opportunities.

You may already be a member of a landcare group if you are:

• working toward environmental, social, and economic outcomes -  the triple bottom line

• working with neighbors, family, neighbors, and/or the community to achieve broader results

• taking group action through collective decision making to improve your community

• caring for the land and water as part of a whole system

For more about landcare groups and communities,
see "community resources" in the toolbox.