The ‘Conservation Right’, also known as the ´Conservation Property Right´ or the ´Environmental Conservation Right´, is a new breed of property right, an affirmative and reflexive right that intends to facilitate the unfolding of new social practices for the conservation of the environment.

This new property right was originally proposed in 2003 in Chile by Dr. Jaime Ubilla (Ubilla 2003), but its legal design -as an affirmative and reflexive right that introduces the new ´facultas or potestas´ called ´ius conservandi´ to the property rights system- was finally developed and proposed by Dr. Ubilla through research conducted in the United Kingdom (Ubilla 2003, Ubilla 2016a, Ubilla 2016b).

The conservation right has already been introduced in Chile through the enactment of Law No20.930 of June 10^th, 2016. Under this legislation the conservation right is defined as ´a property interest that consists in the faculty to conserve the environmental patrimony of a specified land or certain attributes or functions of such patrimony´1.

This property right is established voluntarily through an agreement between the land owner and a third party interested in the conservation of the corresponding environmental patrimony -or certain attributes or functions of such patrimony-.

The object and purpose of this right can be the conservation of the natural environment or of the man-made artificial environment, in rural or urban areas.

The conservation right involves a new paradigm, an innovation to 2,500 years of legal tradition, not only because it allows to delineate and manage ecological intangibles but because it is an affirmative property right -in contrast to traditional restrictions or easements- (Ubilla 2003; Ubilla 2016a Ch.9; Ubilla 2016b). This has consequences in two dimensions: in the economic dimension it means that this new property right facilitates the delineation of natural capital assets -and, therefore, that it facilitates the arising of natural capital markets-; and in the social dimension it means that this new property right is ´reflexive´ to diverse social spheres –and not only to the economic sphere- because it allows for the affirmative representations of broad social values in the relationship to immovable assets –and in the relationships between and among different interested parties and stakeholders that will be represented or facilitated by this legal form- (Ubilla 2016b Ch9).

This is the ´reflexive paradigm of conservation´ –as opposed to the traditional paradigm that normally focuses on ´imposing static restrictions´ over the land –as normally easements do- (Ubilla 2016a).

More broadly, it can be established for the conservation of ecosystems or habitats or of specific ´attributes´ and ´functions´ of the corresponding environment, which means that this new property right can be directly established with respect to specific intangibles or ecosystem services –including those of socio-cultural character-.