3. There is created in but not of the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission, established pursuant to section 5 of P.L.1968, c.404 (C. 13:17-5), a body corporate and politic with corporate succession, to be known as the Meadowlands Conservation Trust. The trust is hereby constituted as an instrumentality exercising public and essential government functions and the exercise by the trust of the powers conferred by this act shall be deemed and held to be an essential government function of the State. The purposes of the trust shall be to acquire and hold, or acquire and convey to other governmental entities or to qualified nonprofit organizations, environmentally important, valuable, or sensitive lands located in the Hackensack meadowlands or within the Hackensack river watershed, which lands shall be permanently preserved and managed in their natural state or in a largely natural or undeveloped state for the purposes of conserving and enhancing natural resources, protecting elements of natural diversity, providing open space, or providing public outdoor passive recreational opportunities.

L.1999,c.31,s.3.