For Land Trusts
Annual Easement Visits Tell You the Land Is There. eDNA Tells You What's Living On It.
Biodivex partners with Pacific Northwest land trusts to layer eDNA metabarcoding and acoustic monitoring onto existing easement holdings. The result is a BHI trend record that quantifies whether the conservation values named in the easement are holding — not just whether the habitat looks intact from the road.
Discuss a PartnershipTrust Partnership Benefits
What eDNA Monitoring Adds to Standard Easement Compliance
Quantitative Easement Monitoring
Visual survey protocols document land cover. eDNA documents organisms. A BHI trend over three or more years produces a quantitative record of whether species richness and functional diversity are stable or declining — scientifically defensible evidence in easement compliance proceedings. We are not a substitute for legal monitoring obligations, but we add biological depth that visual surveys cannot.
Donor-Grade Reporting
Annual Ecosystem Health Reports contain species-level trend data and BHI history in plain-language format. Donors and grantors receive specific evidence — which taxa are present, which are trending up, which are absent where expected — rather than acreage counts. Relevant to Land Trust Alliance accreditation documentation requiring measurable conservation outcomes.
Optional Credit Revenue for Monitoring Endowment
If a trust-held property produces a qualifying BHI score, credits can be listed on the marketplace and revenue directed to the trust's stewardship endowment. Not required — trusts managing properties with donor restrictions on credit generation can participate in monitoring-only mode. We do not pressure credit issuance on properties where it conflicts with the easement's conservation purpose.
Longitudinal Data Archive
eDNA sequencing outputs and acoustic index time series are archived annually in the Biodivex data system. As the record grows, statistical power for detecting trend changes increases. For perpetual easements that may be in the same trust portfolio for fifty years, a growing eDNA archive has scientific value well beyond its credit function.