The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Earth is home to more than 30 million animal and plant species living in some of our most important lands and waters — places The Nature Conservancy is working to protect. During the spring of 2011, Discovery Channel’s LIFE series explored our planet’s living things and their spectacular, bizarre and fascinating behaviors. Each episode focused on a different animal and plant group, including the first filming of Komodo dragons bringing down an animal 10 times their size.

Learn how The Nature Conservancy is working to protect many of the habitats of endangered species featured in the LIFE series. For example:

• Komodo dragons are the largest living species of lizard growing to nearly 10 feet in length and weigh 150 pounds. With only 3,000 Komodo dragons remaining, The Nature Conservancy and its partners are supporting Komodo National Park — 500,000-acre reserve encompasses sparsely grassed mountains, tropical savannas, dense woodlands and white sandy beaches — and its boundaries today extend to coral reefs and seagrass beds that provide habitat for more than 1,000 species of fish.

• Whale sharks are the world’s largest fish species reaching over 41 feet in length and are threatened from overfishing. The Nature Conservancy is focused on supporting the management of marine protected areas along the Mesoamerican Reef and maintaining sustainable fisheries, areas upon which whale sharks depend.
   
• The Sumatran and Bornean orangutan species are threatened due to habitat loss, fragmentation and hunting. The Nature Conservancy is working with the Indonesian Government on the recently developed Indonesian Orangutan Conservation Action Plan to conserve their habitat.