The Nature Conservancy
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The Nature Conservancy is a leading environmental organization working to protect the most ecologically important lands and waters around the world for nature and people.
The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.
Founded in 1951, The Nature Conservancy works in 28 countries, including all fifty United States, with an increasingly global reach. The Conservancy has almost one million members, has protected more than 69,000 square kilometers (17 million acres) in the United States and more than 473,000 square kilometers (117 million acres) internationally. The organization's annual revenue was over $664,000,000 with land assets totalling $3,518,597,577 as of 2005.
The Nature Conservancy rates as the most trusted organization in a recent poll by Harris Interactive, as reported by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Forbes magazine rated The Nature Conservancy's fundraising efficiency at 88% in its 2005 survey of the largest U.S. charities.
Approach
The Nature Conservancy takes a scientific approach to conservation, selecting the areas it seeks to preserve based on analysis of what is needed to ensure the preservation of the local plants, animals, and ecosystems. The Nature Conservancy is one of the world's largest environmental organizations as measured by number of members and area protected. It is a nonprofit organization supported primarily by private donations.
The Nature Conservancy works all sectors of society including businesses, individuals, communities, partner organizations, and government agencies to achieve its goals. The Nature Conservancy is known for working effectively and collaboratively with traditional land owners such as farmers and ranchers, with whom it partners when such a partnership provides an opportunity to advance mutual goals. The Nature Conservancy is in the forefront of private conservation groups implementing prescribed fire to restore and maintain healthy ecosystems and working to address the threats to biodiversity posed by non-native and invasive plants and animals.
The Nature Conservancy has pioneered new land preservation techniques such as the conservation easement and debt for nature swaps. A conservation easement is a way for land owners to ensure that their land remains in its natural state while capitalizing on some of the land's potential development value. Debt for nature swaps are tools used to encourage natural area preservation in third world countries while assisting the country economically as well: in exchange for setting aside land, some of the country's foreign debt is forgiven.
Featured Project Sites
The Nature Conservancy's expanding international conservation efforts include work in North America, Central America, and South America, the Pacific Rim, the Caribbean, and Asia. Increasingly, the Conservancy focuses on projects at significant scale, recognizing the threat habitat fragmentation brings to plants and animals. Below are a few examples of such work:The Nature Conservancy was instrumental in the creation in 2004 of the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.
The Conservancy's efforts in China's Yunnan province, one of the most vital centers of plant diversity in the northern temperate hemisphere, serve as a model for locally-based ecotourism with a global impact.
The Nature Conservancy and its conservation partner, Pronatura Peninsula Yucatán, are working to halt deforestation on private lands in and around the 1.8 million acre (7,300 km²) Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, along the Mexico-Guatemala border. In November 2004, 370,000 acres (1,500 km²) of threated tropical forest in Calakmul were permanently protected under a historic land deal between the Mexican federal and state government, Pronature Peninsula Yucatán, four local communities and the Conservancy.
The Nature Conservancy's programs in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are working together to build partnerships and enhance the profile of the conservation needs in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem by supporting voluntary, private land conservation of important wildlife habitat. Conservation easements, land acquisition, stewardship agreements, grassbanks, prescribed fires and weed districts are a few of the tools the Conservancy and its partners use to protect this region's natural heritage.
The Nature Conservancy's worldwide office is located in Arlington, Virginia.
Criticisms
In recent years, The Nature Conservacy has faced a number of criticisms. They fall into the following main categories
- Too close to business. Some environmental groups and activists view "big business" and "environmentalism" as natural antagonists, and find The Nature Conservacy's collaboration with corporations inappropriate. The Conservancy argues that since corporations have such a significant impact on the environment, they must be engaged in finding ways to do business that do not harm the environment.
- Inappropriate pressure. Some individuals have reported instances where they feel The Nature Conservancy has inappropriately pressured them to "give up land" or "give up rights on their land".
- Questionable resale. There have been instances of The Nature Conservancy obtaining land and reselling it at a profit, sometimes to supporters, who have then made use of it in ways not perceived by all as being sufficiently environmentally friendly. The rationale for the resale has been that the profit allows The Nature Conservacy to increase its preservation of more important locations.
Other information
- The Nature Conservancy has a system for ranking the conservation status of species, and this system is one of two such systems that are in widespread use.
- Roberto Hernández Ramírez former CEO of Banamex is a member of the Board of Directors.
External links
- [The Nature Conservancy website]
- [Washington Post 2004 investigative report on the Nature Conservacy]
- [Charity Navigator budget summary]
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