Conservation use valuation and land protection in Georgia

This paper analyses the first 5 years of the implementation of the Conservation Use Valuation (CUV) program in Georgia. This program provides for current use tax assessment for land dedicated to selected uses for a period of 10 years. Using a sample of counties from the north Georgia region where the program has been most heavily utilized, we analyze the economic and land use impacts of the program. We show that while there is substantial variability in enrollment across counties, the average land area per enrolled covenant is 27.6 ha. If we use this average value for the entire region, then over 22% of the eligible land in north Georgia is currently enrolled in the program. The fiscal impacts are also varied, with some counties showing a substantial reduction in property tax revenues while others showed only a marginal impact.