The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

The Nature Conservancy pursues non-confrontational, pragmatic, market-based solutions to conservation challenges. This makes it essential for us to work collaboratively with partners — with communities, companies, government agencies, multilateral institutions, individuals and other non-profit organizations around the globe.

Governmental Agencies

In the United States, we work with federal government agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), the National Park Service (NPS) and the Department of Defense (DOD) as well as agencies at the state and local level.

Companies

For decades The Nature Conservancy has recognized that the private sector has an important role to play in advancing our conservation mission. In that spirit, we are working with companies large and small around the world to help change business practices and policies, raise awareness of conservation issues, and raise funds to support important new science and conservation projects.

• The Conservancy and Dow Chemical Company are working together on a breakthrough collaboration that will ultimately help Dow incorporate the value of nature into its company-wide goals, strategies and business objectives.
• We are using science to help large companies like Coca-Cola determine their “water footprint” — a key strategy for keeping more water available for people, plants and animals.
• Working with 23 communities, The Conservancy is protecting forests and helping communities by bringing Fair Trade cocoa to Papua New Guinea.
• Crystal Light, one of Kraft Foods’ most popular brands, recognized the need to protect and conserve freshwater resources and is working with the Conservancy to raise visibility of this important issue.

Learn more about how we are collaborating with companies for conservation.

Non-Profit Organizations

The Conservancy works with other like-minded organizations, ranging from large non-profit conservation groups like Conservation International and NatureServe, to local land trusts. For example:

• Explore the Natural Capital Project, a partnership among the Conservancy, WWF, and Stanford University designed to make conservation economically attractive and commonplace throughout the world.
• Learn how the Conservancy is supporting the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE) to protect the natural wonder and resources of Belize.

Local Stakeholders

The Conservancy works in cooperation with private landowners and local stakeholders, such as ranchers, farmers and fishermen, to ensure good ecological management while continuing to support the local economy. For example:

• Learn how the Conservancy is working with local ranchers in California's Mount Hamilton Project
• Learn how the Conservancy is using sustainable aquaculture in Long Island's Great South Bay.

Indigenous and Traditional Communities

Most of the world’s biodiversity exists in areas inhabited by people. Effective conservation cannot be achieved unless the people who live and rely on those lands are an integral part of the conservation process. For more than 50 years, The Nature Conservancy has depended upon partnerships with indigenous people and local communities to conserve some of the most biologically critical and threatened ecosystems on Earth.

• Learn more about the Conservancy's active involvement with indigenous people and communities.

Multilateral-Bilateral Institutions

Although our primary conservation method since The Nature Conservancy began working outside the U.S. has been allocating and designing funding sources for conservation, more and more we are understanding that successful conservation strategies must include partnerships with governments, lending institutions, and other non-governmental organizations at all levels local, national and international. For example:

• In 2002, the Conservancy worked with the World Wildlife Fund using funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development to launch the Indonesia Illegal Logging Project, a $10 million partnership that addresses illegal logging supply side issues in Indonesia and demand-side issues in major international markets such as China and Japan.
• The Conservancy has partnered with UNDP and others in the Equator Initiative, which was launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 2002.
• The Conservancy established a new network of organizations collaborating on conservation finance initiatives — the Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA). Members in May 2003 were The Nature Conservancy, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Wildlife Conservation Society, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund, USAID, German Government Agency for Technical Assistance (GTZ), National Parks Conservation Association (US), and RedLAC.
• The Global Conservation Program Leader with Associates Cooperative Agreements is a $75 million biodiversity program supported by USAID and six other conservation partners: African Wildlife Foundation, Conservation International, Enterprise WorksWorldwide, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wildlife Fund, and The Nature Conservancy.
• The goal of the GCP is to conserve globally significant areas of biodiversity through broad programs that are sustainable, focused and adaptive. The GCP has awarded the Conservancy with funding to Kimbe Bay in Papua New Guinea, Wakatobi National Park and Raja Ampat in Indonesia, the MesoAmerican Reef system just off the Caribbean coast of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras and the Pantanal/Chaco region in Paraguay. At these sites, the Conservancy is investing in innovative conservation finance mechanisms along with site-based conservation initiatives with partners and local communities.