**Press Release**

Land Conservation Funded by State Lawmakers

Nokomis, FL — ​​​​​The Florida Legislature approved the 2025-26 state budget, allocating $268 million to support land conservation across the state. This investment will help safeguard Florida’s agricultural and natural landscapes, water resources and wildlife habitat.

The legislature maintained its commitment to state land conservation by funding the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program (RFLPP) at $250 million and Florida Forever at $18 million for the next fiscal year.

"We are so appreciative that the legislature recognizes the need for funding the state's Rural and Family Lands Protection Program,” said Julie Morris, executive director of the Florida Conservation Group (FCG). “With our land base losing ground to so much development, we’ve got to preserve both our agricultural and natural lands to balance out that growth and keep parts of Old Florida intact.”

The rural protection program (RFLPP) is housed within the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Although it was passed by the Legislature in 2001, it was not substantially funded until 2022, when then-Senate President Wilton Simpson (now the Commissioner of Agriculture) dedicated $300 million to it. The $250 million approved this year for rural conservation easements is the greatest amount appropriated since then.

One of our nation's first land acquisition programs, Florida Forever has been preserving the last of the state’s natural areas and water resources for decades. The program, administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, is responsible for purchasing native woodlands, beaches and recreation lands that often become state parks, state forests and wildlife management areas. The program can purchase lands outright for parks and waterfronts, as well as purchase conservation easements. Both programs are necessary to sustain Florida.

Sprawling suburban development and small acreage “ranchettes” are spreading inland from the coasts into Florida’s interior, pushing farming and ranching into increasingly isolated operations. Even interior counties are feeling the squeeze, as new residents move inland from built-out coastal communities and fragment the rural landscape. By 2040, an estimated 1 million additional acres of rural land including ranches could be developed if the state doesn’t protect those lands before they’re converted to intensive uses.

The Florida Conservation Group has played a key role in the permanent protection of more than 100,000 acres statewide, including over 40,000 acres in the Peace River Valley. This region remains a conservation priority for FCG, as it supplies drinking water to Southwest Florida and directly impacts the health of the Charlotte Harbor Estuary.

Working alongside state partners including the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program and Florida Forever, FCG applies science-based conservation strategies to protect ecologically significant land, support working agricultural operations and preserve Florida’s natural resources.

“We will need a mixture of agricultural and natural lands to protect our food, fiber, wildlife and water if we’re going to maintain our economy and environment—and our entire way of life,” said Morris. “We’re excited to see the legislature commit robust funding to preserve our rural and agricultural lands, and we look forward to similar commitments to Florida Forever over the crucial next few years to securing our last remaining wild spaces. We have an increasingly limited time frame to make sure both of these programs achieve what they’re intended to do.”

###

About FCG
With locations in Myakka City and Nokomis, FCG is committed to conserving Florida’s natural landscape, wildlife, food and water, while maintaining working agricultural lands that are essential to the state’s economy and national security. Comprised of scientists, ranchers and conservation policy experts, FCG advocates for full funding for state land protection programs, including the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program and the Florida Forever Program. FCG works on the ground with ranchers and farmers to conserve their lands in perpetuity. Since its inception in 2015, FCG has represented private landowners in the conservation of more than 100,000 acres of land and facilitated the protection of thousands of additional acres on behalf of government entities