usufruct: how to access land without debt or rent

You want to farm, restore, or steward land. But you can't afford to buy it, don't want 30 years of debt, and refuse to pay rent that builds someone else's equity. There's a third option most people have never heard of.

It's called usufruct—the legal right to use land and enjoy its benefits without owning it. And ensurance makes it possible at scale.

the land access crisis

59% of young farmers say accessing affordable farmland is "very or extremely challenging." The numbers explain why:

For a modest 100-acre operation, you're looking at $400,000+ just for land—before equipment, seeds, buildings, or living expenses. Banks want collateral you don't have. Landlords want rent you can't afford while building a regenerative operation.

The problem isn't willingness to work. It's that the ownership model is broken.

your current options (and why they fail)

Every option either traps you in debt, leaves you vulnerable to eviction, or depends on luck. None of them reward what you actually bring: the skill, time, and commitment to steward land well.

what is usufruct?

Usufruct is a legal right to use and benefit from property owned by someone else, as long as you don't damage or diminish the property's substance. The term comes from Latin: usus (use) + fructus (fruit/benefit).

In practice, usufruct means:

• You have secure, long-term (often perpetual) access to land
• You enjoy the "fruits" of the land—crops, livestock, forest products, income
• You don't pay rent in the traditional sense
• You can't sell the land or damage its long-term productivity
• Ownership remains with the original owner (or their heirs, or a trust)

Usufruct separates the right to use land from the right to sell land. This is the key innovation.

Usufruct has deep roots across cultures—from Roman law to West African communal tenure to community land trusts in Vermont. It's not new. What's new is the infrastructure to fund it.

the missing piece: who pays?

Usufruct solves the steward's problem. But what about the landowner?

If you own 500 acres and want to offer usufruct rights to a young farmer, you still have:

• Property taxes to pay
• A purchase price to recover (or opportunity cost)
• Stewardship standards to enforce
• Heirs who might want the land back someday

Traditional usufruct works within families or communities with existing trust relationships. Scaling it beyond that has always hit the same wall: who provides the capital?

This is where ensurance enters.

how ensurance enables modern usufruct

Ensurance creates the financial infrastructure for usufruct to work at scale. Here's the model:

step 1: landowner issues ensurance certificates

The landowner creates specific ensurance certificates tied to their natural assets—the watershed, forest carbon, wildlife habitat, or regenerative agricultural systems on their land.

These certificates represent the ecosystem services the land provides: clean water, carbon storage, biodiversity, soil health. They're investable instruments backed by real natural capital.

step 2: investors provide upfront capital

Institutional investors, family offices, and impact funds purchase certificates. This capital flows to the landowner—recovering their land cost, funding restoration, or simply providing income.

Investors get verified exposure to natural capital without the complexity of direct land ownership. They're not buying the land; they're investing in its ecological function.

step 3: steward provides labor and expertise

The usufructuary—that's you—provides the stewardship. You manage the land, implement regenerative practices, conduct restoration work, and maintain the ecosystem services that investors are paying for.

Your compensation comes from the land's production (crops, livestock, timber) and from ongoing stewardship payments funded by certificate premiums.

step 4: everyone gets what they need

No one is trapped. Everyone's incentives align.

ensurance policies: a path to permanent protection

Beyond usufruct, ensurance offers something even more transformative: a financial model for transitioning private land into permanent commons.

An ensurance policy calculates premium options based on the relationship between a natural asset's annual ecosystem service value (RealValue), the underlying real asset cost, and different time horizons. The result is a range of financially viable options:

Once the ensurance premium is fully paid, the natural asset enters ENTRUST—a permanent trust structure where the land is held and managed on behalf of nature itself. The land use restrictions are recorded at the title level. The ecosystem is protected in perpetuity.

Ensurance policies create a definitive path from private ownership to public good—with financially viable options for any timeline.

This means a landowner who can't afford to donate their land to conservation can still see it permanently protected. The premium payments spread the transition cost over time. Investors, policyholders, and proceeds from the ensurance market fund the journey.

For a steward using usufruct access, this is even better: the land they're caring for has a clear path to becoming a commons. Their work isn't building someone else's private equity—it's contributing to permanent protection.

usufruct vs. traditional arrangements

Ensurance usufruct combines the security of ownership with the accessibility of renting—without the downsides of either—and adds a path to permanent protection.

real-world usufruct models (that need capital)

Several organizations are already pioneering usufruct-style arrangements:

Community Land Trusts hold land and lease it to farmers on 99-year terms. The farmer owns buildings and improvements, the trust retains land ownership. Challenge: acquiring land in the first place requires capital.

Agrarian Commons create community-owned farmland with equitable lease terms. Farmers gain security without debt. Challenge: scaling requires significant fundraising.

Conservation easements separate development rights from use rights. Landowners get paid to restrict development. Challenge: doesn't address who stewards the land or how they're compensated.

Ensurance provides the missing layer: a capital market for ecosystem services that makes these models financially sustainable without perpetual grant-seeking.

who this works for

stewards seeking land access

• Young farmers priced out of land ownership
• Regenerative practitioners who need long-term tenure to build soil
• Foresters managing for carbon and biodiversity
• Conservation managers implementing restoration projects
• Indigenous communities reclaiming stewardship of ancestral lands

landowners seeking stewards

• Aging farmers with no succession plan
• Land trusts holding properties without management capacity
• Conservation buyers who want active restoration
• Family land owners who can't manage but don't want to sell
• Institutional landowners seeking verified stewardship

investors seeking exposure

• Family offices with natural capital mandates
• ESG funds needing verified biodiversity exposure
• Insurance companies hedging climate risk
• Corporations with supply chain sustainability goals
• Impact investors seeking blended returns

what you'd actually do

If you're a steward:

1. Identify land with ensurance potential—ideally with an owner open to alternative arrangements
2. Work with the landowner to assess natural capital value through a RealValue assessment
3. Help structure certificates that reflect the land's ecosystem services
4. Negotiate your usufruct terms: access rights, production rights, stewardship obligations, compensation
5. Begin stewardship while investors purchase certificates

If you're a landowner:

1. Get your land valued for natural capital, not just real estate
2. Identify which ecosystem services your land provides (water, carbon, habitat, etc.)
3. Issue specific ensurance certificates tied to those services
4. Find a qualified steward and grant usufruct rights
5. Receive capital from certificate sales while the steward manages the land
6. Optionally, structure an ensurance policy to transition the land into permanent trust

If you're an investor:

1. Browse available certificates tied to specific natural assets
2. Conduct due diligence on the underlying land and stewardship arrangements
3. Purchase certificates to gain exposure to verified ecosystem services
4. Receive annual premiums while land value and ecosystem function improve

frequently asked questions

is usufruct the same as renting?

No. Usufruct is typically perpetual (or very long-term), doesn't involve regular rent payments, and gives the usufructuary stronger rights than a tenant. Traditional renting builds the landlord's equity. Usufruct builds the land's health—and the steward's improvements.

do I build any equity as a usufructuary?

Yes, in your improvements. Any buildings, infrastructure, or systems you install remain yours. The land itself stays with the owner. Some arrangements also include performance incentives tied to ecosystem outcomes.

what if the landowner sells?

Usufruct rights typically transfer with the land. A new owner would inherit the obligation to honor your access rights. This is negotiated and documented upfront—ensurance certificates add another layer of protection since investors have claims on the land's ecosystem services.

what protects the land from being degraded by the usufructuary?

The certificates themselves. Certificate holders have invested in the land's ecosystem services—they have a contractual interest in maintaining ecological function. Stewardship standards are written into the usufruct agreement and monitored through MRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification) systems. Poor stewardship affects certificate value.

how is this different from a conservation easement?

Conservation easements restrict development but don't provide ongoing stewardship funding or land access. Ensurance usufruct provides both: capital for the landowner, access for the steward, returns for investors, and protection for the land. An ensurance policy can also transition land into permanent trust—something easements alone don't accomplish.

can this work for any land?

The ensurance model works best for land with significant natural capital value—forests, wetlands, grasslands, working agricultural land with ecological function. Urban or heavily developed land has less ecosystem service value to certificate.

what is ENTRUST?

ENTRUST is the permanent trust structure that natural assets enter once an ensurance policy is fully paid. Land use restrictions are recorded at the title level, and the land is managed on behalf of nature by the protocol. It's the end state: land transitioned from private ownership to permanent commons.

the opportunity window

300 million acres of U.S. farmland will change hands in the next two decades. Most current owners have no succession plan. Most aspiring farmers have no capital.

This is either a crisis or an opportunity, depending on whether we have the infrastructure to connect them.

Ensurance creates a market where landowners can monetize stewardship, investors can fund it, and stewards can access land without debt—with a path to permanent protection for the land itself.

Usufruct isn't a new idea. It's an old idea that finally has the financial plumbing to work at scale.

next steps

If you want to steward land: Start by identifying properties and landowners who might be open to this model. Talk to our team about structuring an arrangement.

If you own land and want a steward: Get your land valued for natural capital. Understand what ecosystem services it provides before structuring certificates.

If you're an investor: Explore specific ensurance certificates to see how natural asset investment works in practice.

To see premium options in action: View a natural asset with ensurance policy options

The land is there. The stewards are ready. The only question is whether the capital infrastructure exists to connect them.

Now it does.