The Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust works with landowners to legally protect important biodiversity and landscape values in perpetuity through the covenanting process. A covenant is a powerful legal mechanism for protection that requires current and all future landowners to manage the land for conservation purposes.

Establishment of a covenant includes fencing the area, ecological survey, land survey, and undertaking the legal requirements to register the covenant on the land title. Landowners retain full ownership of their covenant and manage it with advice from the Trust provided through an ecological management plan developed for each covenant. 

As at 31 March 2020 the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust has 76 covenants that provide legal protection for 1,501 ha of land.