The Nature Conservancy

This article is about the charitable organization in the United States. For the Canadian organization, see The Nature Conservancy of Canada. For the former UK government organization, see Nature Conservancy (UK).

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy: Protecting nature. Preserving life. The Nature Conservancy logo is copyright © 2007 The Nature Conservancy
Founded	1951  (1951)
Headquarters	Arlington, Virginia, United States
Area served	Global
Method	Conservation by Design
Members	More than 1 million
Revenue	US$949 million (2013)
Slogan	"Protecting nature. Preserving life"
Website	nature.org

The Nature Conservancy is an American charitable environmental organization, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

Its mission is to "conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends."

The Indiana Dunes of Northwest Indiana played a role in the formation of The Nature Conservancy. Volo Bog in northern Illinois was one of the first purchases of the Illinois Nature Conservancy due to the fundraising efforts of Cyrus Mark, the first president of the Illinois Nature Conservancy.

Founded in Arlington, Virginia, in 1951, The Nature Conservancy now works in more than 35 countries, including all 50 states of the United States. The Conservancy has over one million members, and has protected more than 119,000,000 acres (48,000,000 ha) of land and 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of rivers worldwide. The Nature Conservancy also operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally. The organization's assets total $6.18 billion as of 2014.

The Nature Conservancy is the largest environmental nonprofit by assets and by revenue in the Americas.

The Nature Conservancy rates as one of the most trusted national organizations in Harris Interactive polls every year since 2005. Forbes magazine rated The Nature Conservancy's fundraising efficiency at 88 percent in its 2005 survey of the largest U.S. charities. The Conservancy received a two-star rating from Charity Navigator in 2012 (three-star in 2010) and was named by that organization in 2005 on their list of "10 of the Best Charities Everyone's Heard Of". The American Institute of Philanthropy gives the Conservancy an A− rating and includes it on its list of "Top-Rated Charities".

The Nature Conservancy is led by President and CEO Mark Tercek, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, and an adjunct professor at the New York University Stern School of Business. The organization draws from all segments of the community. Retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of coalition forces during the First Gulf War, was a member of the Conservancy's President's Conservation Council.

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 with 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

Nature Conservancy of Tennessee's William B. Clark, Sr., Nature Preserve on the Wolf River at Rossville, Tennessee

The Nature Conservancy's expanding international conservation efforts include work in North America, Central America, and South America, Africa, 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 Guatemala–Mexico border. In November 2004, 370,000 acres (1,500 km²) of threatened tropical forest in Calakmul were permanently protected under a historic land deal between the Mexican federal and state government, Pronatura 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. In 2007, the Nature Conservancy made a 161,000-acre (650 km²) purchase of New York forestland from Finch Paper Holdings LLC for $110 million, its largest purchase ever in that state.

In June 2008, The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land announced they reached an agreement to purchase approximately 320,000 acres (1,300 km²) of western Montana forestland from Plum Creek Timber Company (NYSE:PCL) for $510 million. The purchase, known as the Montana Legacy Project, is part of an effort to keep these forests in productive timber management and protect the area's clean water and abundant fish and wildlife habitat, while promoting continued public access to these lands for fishing, hiking, hunting and other recreational pursuits.

Plant a Billion Trees campaign

The Nature Conservancy's Plant a Billion Trees Campaign is an effort to restore 2,500,000 acres (10,100 km²) of land and plant one billion trees by 2025 in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. Each donated dollar results in one planted tree in the Atlantic Forest.

Environmental benefits

The Plant a Billion Trees campaign has also been identified as a tool to help slow climate change, as the Atlantic Forest – one of the biggest tropical forests in the world – helps regulate the atmosphere and stabilize global climate. The reforestation of the Atlantic Forest has the capability to remove 10 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The Nature Conservancy states that this is equivalent to taking two million cars off the road. The Atlantic Forest's restoration could help to slow the process of climate change that is affecting the earth.

The Nature Conservancy's Plant a Billion Trees Campaign also aims to protect 10 critical watersheds in the Atlantic Forest that provide water and hydro power to more than 70 million people, create 20,000 direct jobs, and an additional 70,000 indirectly as part of this effort. The Plant a Billion Trees Campaign is also associated with The Nature Conservancy's Adopt an Acre program, which consists of nine locations, including Brazil.

Involvement in the community

The Nature Conservancy also features e-cards from the Atlantic Forest, as well as video of the Atlantic Forest and detailed information about the seedlings on their website. The Web site also features a news feed and an interactive map of the Atlantic Forest region in Brazil, as well as information on many of the plants, animals, and people that are impacted by the plight of the forest and who may benefit from its restoration.

Tree planting

The Nature Conservancy plants one tree in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil for each dollar donated by supporters. Some of the seeds being planted consist of:

• Guapuruvu Tree (Schizolobium parahyba) – An indigenous plant of Atlantic Forest, this has one of the fastest growth rates of all the native species.
• Golden Trumpet Tree (Tabebuia umbellate) – According to popular belief, when this tree's yellow blooms appear, no more frosts will occur. The wood of a Golden Trumpet Tree has the same fire rating as concrete and is denser than water. Illegal logging activity has grown due to this tree's growing popularity.
• Ice-Cream Bean Tree (Inga edulis) – Leafy and abundant, this tree controls weeds and erosion. Its popular fruit is a long pod up to a few feet, containing a sweet pulp surrounding large seeds.
• Capororoca Tree (Myrsine ferruginea) – Birds like the Rufous-bellied Thrush enjoy the fruit off of this tree.

History of the campaign

The Nature Conservancy launched the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign in 2008 with a micro-site plantabillion.org that is affiliated but not hosted by The Nature Conservancy's website.

As a part of this launch, The Nature Conservancy pledged to plant 25 million trees as part of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)'s Billion Tree Campaign. This campaign encourages individuals and organizations to plant their own trees around the world and record this action on the website as a tally.

On Earth Day 2009, Disneynature's film Earth debuted, promising to plant a tree for every ticket sold to the film in its first week. This resulted in a donation of 2.7 million trees to the Plant a Billion Trees program.

Partnerships

The Plant a Billion Trees Campaign has followed The Nature Conservancy's approach of partnering with larger organizations (such as Disneynature, Planet Green, Penguin Books, Payless Shoesource, AT&T, Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, and Visa) to leverage donations from supporters and increase efficiency and effectiveness of the campaign.

• Penguin Classics sponsored a Penguin Walk to benefit the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign on June 6, 2009 as well.
• Payless Shoesource sponsored the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign by giving $1 to The Nature Conservancy for every Plant a Billion Trees reusable bag sold between April 13, 2009, and December 31, 2009 (sold at a retail value of $1.99) and $1 from each zoe&zac branded product sold between 4/13/09 and 5/4/09. Payless guaranteed a minimum total contribution of $100,000 in 2009 from these sales and the sales of other merchandise during 2009.
• Panasonic has been involved by planting a tree for each customer who selects The Nature Conservancy in its "Giving Back" program.
• Organic Bouquet donated ten percent for every flower and gift purchased during the month of April 2008 at www.organicbouquet.com/nature.

The Nature Conservancy and its scientists also work with other conservation organizations, local landowners, state and federal officials, agencies, and private companies to protect, connect, and buffer what is left of the Atlantic Forest.

Criticism

Over the years, The Nature Conservancy has faced a number of criticisms. They fall into the following main categories:

Too close to business

Some environmentalists consider industrial development to be antagonistic to environmentalism, and disapprove of The Nature Conservancy's policy of permitting oil drilling, timbering, mining, and natural gas drilling on land donated to the Conservancy.

The Nature Conservancy has ties to roughly 1900 corporate sponsors. Its governing board consists of numerous executives and directors of oil companies, chemical producers, auto manufacturers, mining concerns, logging operations, and electric utilities. And it has a reputation for remaining silent on key environmental issues that involve business practices in general. For example, many environmental organizations battled against the Bush Administration's plan to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but the Nature Conservancy did not participate in this fight. It was later discovered that legislation to allow drilling is supported by members of the Conservancy leadership council, which consists of members from BP and ExxonMobil, as well as by Phillips Alaska, Inc. These organizations have also donated over $1 million to the group. Mark Tercek, the current president and CEO of the Nature Conservancy, had little to say about the accusations that ensued. Although there was a lot of pressure for the Conservancy to cut ties with BP, Tercek refused.

Questionable resale

There have been allegations of The Nature Conservancy obtaining land and reselling it at a profit, sometimes to supporters, who have then made use of it in ways which many perceived as being insufficiently environmentally friendly. The rationale for the resale has been that the profit allows The Nature Conservancy to increase its preservation of what the Nature Conservancy claims are more important locations. However, the Conservancy does have a no-net-profit policy that has been in effect for years for all transactions of this type. It has ways of ensuring that its disbursements will offset any illicitly-generated revenues.

Animal rights

Like many large environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the World Wildlife Fund, the Conservancy has also been criticized for using hunting in its management policies. Retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, the Commander of coalition forces during the First Gulf War, and a member of the President's Conservation Counsel of the Conservancy, was also a member of the trophy hunting organization the Safari Club International.

Junk Mail

The Nature Conservancy asks for monetary contributions, in part by sending out unsolicited promotional letters, calendars, et cetera (i.e., so-called "junk mail"). The practice of sending junk mail wastes millions of trees (per year), produces greenhouse gases equivalent to millions of cars (per year), and wastes billions of gallons of water (per year), according to the environmental impact group 41pounds.org.

Publication

The organization publishes The Nature Conservancy magazine (ISSN 1540-2428; six issues per year).

See also

• Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance
• List of environmental issues
• List of environmental organizations
• Natural capital
• Natural environment
• Natural landscape
• Natural resource
• Nature
• Sustainability
• Sustainable development
• Timeline of environmental events

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Grove, Noel; with photographs by Stephen J. Krasemann (1992). Preserving Eden: The Nature Conservancy. New York City: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-3663-1.
• Morine, David E. (1990). Good Dirt: Confessions of a Conservationist. Chester, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press. ISBN 0-87106-444-8.
• Birchard, Bill (2005). Nature's Keepers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass (a Wiley imprint). ISBN 0-7879-7158-8.
• Stephens, Joe; Ottaway, David B. (June 8, 2005). "Senators Question Conservancy's Practices: End to 'Insider' and 'Side' Deals by Nonprofit Organizations Is Urged". The Washington Post.
• Stephens, Joe; Ottaway, David B. May 3, 2003). "Conservancy Scientists Question Their Role". The Washington Post.
• Stephens, Joe; Ottaway, David B. (May 4, 2003). "$420,000 a Year and No-Strings Fund: Conservancy Underreported President's Pay and Perks of Office". The Washington Post.
• Stephens, Joe; Ottaway, David B. (May 16, 2003). "Charity Hiring Lawyers to Try to Prevent Hill Probe". The Washington Post.

External links

• nature.org, the organization's official website
  • Cool Green Science – The Conservation Blog of The Nature Conservancy
• The Nature Conservancy – Plant a billion trees campaign
• The Nature Conservancy's Conservation Data
• Charity Navigator budget summary
• Nature's Land Brokers Documentary produced by Idaho Public Television
• The Nature Conservancy at SourceWatch