Families and The Value of Land [video]

The Charleston City Paper published a great article last week on the importance of land to the sustainable food movement. We thought we’d share another perspective on land and sustainability while the topic was in the air.

The Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation is doing vital work here in the Lowcountry. They protect heirs’ property and promote its sustainable use to provide increased economic benefit to low wealth families through education and legal services.

This video, from the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, introduces some of the clients The Center for Heirs’ Property is helping.

The Center for Heirs’ Property began as a project of the Coastal Community Foundation (CCF) in 2002 with input from heirs’ property owners, attorneys, judges, nonprofit service providers and funders. In 2005, The Center was established as its own nonprofit to meet the overwhelming need from low-income heirs’ property owners for free educational and direct legal services.

Today, the Center prevents land loss among low-wealth heirs’ property owners by helping them obtain clear title and keep their family land through legal education, legal and mediation services, community empowerment and free Wills Clinics. The Center also promotes sustainable land use for increased economic benefit to low-wealth family owners.

Their work helps protect rural, family-owned land against urban sprawl and development, preserves the unique cultural heritage of Lowcountry communities, sustains the region’s diverse ecosystems, increases land value and income through sustainable forestry and agro-forestry management, and engages under-represented groups in land use dialogue and the value of land stewardship.

[source: http://mrbf.org/storybank/value-land]