Select an area of the above diagram to learn more about our approach to conservation.
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Glossary of Terms used throughout Conservation By Design
Major Habitat Types
Terrestrial
Tropical moist broadleaf forests
Tropical dry broadleaf forests
Tropical coniferous forests
Temperate broadleaf & mixed forests
Temperate coniferous forests
Boreal forests/taiga
Tundra
Temperate grasslands, savannas & shrublands
Tropical grasslands, savannas & shrublands
Flooded grasslands & savannas
Montane grasslands & shrublands
Deserts & xeric shrublands
Mediterranean forests, woodlands & scrub
Marine
Polar bays & estuaries
Temperate (warm and cold) bays & estuaries
Tropical bays & estuaries
Epipelagic (ocean surface)
Mesopelagic (mid-depth oceans)
Bathypelagic (deep oceans)
Polar shelves
Temperate (warm and cold) shelves
Tropical shelves
Slope (sea bottom)
Abyssal (deep sea bottom)
Freshwater
Arctic freshwaters
Temperate large rivers
Temperate headwaters
Temperate coastal freshwaters
Temperate large lakes
Desert/xeric small freshwaters
Desert/xeric large rivers
Oceanic freshwaters
Tropical large rivers
Tropical headwaters
Tropical coastal freshwaters
Tropical large lakes
Small lakes
Large river deltas
Core Concepts
The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization with the mission of preserving the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy’s conservation process.
An ecoregion is a large unit of land and water typically defined by climate, geology, topography and associations of plants and animals. Ecoregions, not political boundaries, provide a framework for capturing ecological and genetic variation in biodiversity across a full range of environmental gradients.
Major habitat types (see sidebar) are groupings of ecoregions that reflect global-scale patterns of how biodiversity is organized and distributed. Major habitat types share similar environmental conditions, habitat structure, communities and patterns of biological complexity. There are more than 30 major habitat types on Earth, spanning terrestrial, marine and freshwater categories.
An ecoregional portfolio, the end product of ecoregional planning, is a selected set of places that represents the full distribution and diversity of native species, natural communities and ecosystems in an ecoregion. If managed appropriately, a portfolio will ensure the long-term survival of all native life and natural communities, not just threatened species and communities.
An ecosystem is a group of interconnected natural communities on land or in water that are linked together by ecological processes. Primary emphasis in portfolio design will be placed on conserving the highest quality examples of ecosystems and second, on viable populations of native species not captured within these ecosystems. Portfolio design and implementation is a dynamic and iterative process that will be periodically updated and refined.
Functional conservation areas conserve the focal species, natural communities, ecosystems and the ecological processes necessary to sustain them over the long term. Functional conservation areas range along a continuum of complexity and scale, from landscapes that seek to conserve a large number of conservation targets at multiple spatial scales, to sites that seek to conserve a small number of conservation targets. To conserve wide-ranging and migratory species, functional conservation areas within and across portfolios should be designed as integrated networks.
Functional landscapes represent particularly effective and efficient geographical units for conserving biodiversity within ecoregions. Large, complex, multi-scale and relatively intact, functional landscapes provide an ecological stage on which biodiversity can respond to human or natural disturbances.
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