The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Since 1983 Cargill and The Nature Conservancy have worked together successfully in Brazil, China, Argentina and the United States on issues ranging from eliminating deforestation to capacity building in national park systems to freshwater conservation in agricultural landscapes.

Conservation Highlights:

• In 2004, the Conservancy began working with Cargill in Brazil to establish the Responsible Soy project. The project has provided on-the-ground legal, financial and technical assistance for farmers to work toward compliance with the Brazilian Forest Code. It is helping farmers apply best management practices in environmental stewardship and provides training in reforestation and restoration techniques. The result has been zero deforestation in the Santarém region of Pará state, Brazil without sacrificing production needs. This pragmatic model for commercial and conservation success is now poised for expansion across the region.
• Cargill’s support in Argentina allows the Conservancy to bring science- and business-based management practices to some of the least protected and most threatened habitat on Earth: the Patagonian Grasslands. The Conservancy’s involvement in the national park system, now under joint development, will achieve several objectives including sustainable funding, threat management, and the monitoring of biodiversity viability.
• In the United States Cargill has supported science and capacity building work in the upper Mississippi river that has successfully helped the Conservancy increase the size and scale of conservation efforts throughout the area. In 2010 the Conservancy was able to begin expanding its work from the 500 sq. mile Boone River watershed into the 7,800 sq. mile Cedar River watershed. And, due in large part to on-the-ground conditions made possible by cumulative investments that Cargill has made in the work of The Nature Conservancy, up to $11M in public funds will be invested in conservation in the Boone and Root River basins during the next four years.
• And in China, Cargill’s support of the Conservancy’s Conservation Action Planning methodology has led to increased capacity within existing nature reserves, and is also helping to expand China’s protected area system by using innovative new models that balance economic and conservation benefits. This balance is key to gaining local government support for additional land protection.