3.5. USA

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, as well as a major area of both recreational and commercial fishing for the State of Maryland. The environmental quality of the Bay has been seriously threatened by wastewater discharges from growing population centres and minimal controls of agricultural run off (both fertilizers and animal by-products).

In response, area governments have made restoration of the Bay an environmental priority, including an increased interest in land and wetlands management. However, both state and local governments lacked the financial and personnel resources to fully address these issues. In this context, the Chesapeake Forest Project was created. A private lumber company sought to divest its land holdings in the State of Maryland, offering the State the opportunity to purchase this land - more than 58,000 acres in five counties. Much of this land bordered on existing State-owned parkland and forest, creating a unique opportunity to buffer a large area from deforestation and development.

However, the State lacked the funding to acquire the land and the personnel resources to manage the land once purchased - not to mention that the cessation of timber harvesting on the offered lands would have caused an unacceptable loss of employment in largely rural regions of the state. The State regarded the potential to safeguard these lands from development as a unique environmental opportunity. Recognizing its fiscal and personnel limitations, the State entered into a two-phase PPP to purchase and manage the land.