The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Mark Tercek © The Nature Conservancy

“We seek out ‘transformative opportunities’ — projects of such scale and consequence that they change what people believe is possible through conservation. And we are at our best when we team up with extraordinary leaders to achieve these goals.”

— Mark Tercek
President and CEO
The Nature Conservancy

One thing I love about my job is working with great partners on projects that really make a difference.

The Nature Conservancy is always eager to pioneer innovative ways to protect the world’s lands and waters. We seek out “transformative opportunities”—projects of such scale and consequence that they change what people believe is possible through conservation. And we are at our best when we team up with extraordinary leaders to achieve these goals.

We recently accomplished such a breakthrough with the Forever Costa Rica project. Larry Linden of the Linden Trust for Conservation was our lead partner and inspiration for this extraordinary project.

Larry worked with The Nature Conservancy to assemble a coalition of partners—including the U.S. and Costa Rican governments, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation—to raise a secure source of funding that will forever protect Costa Rica’s natural systems.

Through this joint effort, Costa Rica is now expected to become the first developing nation in the world to meet its commitments under the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity. Forever Costa Rica is also serving as a model for other countries. The Nature Conservancy is reaching out to partners in Mexico and Colombia to launch similar efforts.

Another transformative project was made possible by the support of businessman and philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss. Hansjörg’s love for the American West inspired him to commit $35 million to secure the integrity of a 10-million-acre ecosystem known as the Crown of the Continent.

The funding not only helped The Nature Conservancy purchase more than 310,000 acres of land that faced subdivision and development but also served as a catalyst for additional private gifts and more than $350 million in public monies. The result will be an intact mosaic of public and private lands that protect migration routes for grizzlies and other wildlife, as well as grazing lands and sustainably managed forests critical to local livelihoods.

“The best legacies are the hardest to achieve,” Hansjörg says of the project. “We now have the chance to leave future generations one of the largest networks of wild lands on Earth.”

But it’s not only individuals who inspire us to think bigger and better. The Nature Conservancy is working with entire communities whose commitment shows what can be achieved through conservation.

In Kenya, for example, we are partnering with the Northern Rangelands Trust, a collection of community-led conservancies spanning 2.5 million acres. The communities have joined forces to stop wildlife poaching and launch ecotourism businesses that generate revenue for clean water, improved health care and education for local children.

Last summer, The Nature Conservancy conducted the first-ever rapid ecological assessment of the region, collecting information on local biodiversity and threats so we can help the communities accomplish even more. We are also working with the Rangeland Trust’s partner organization, the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, and with Ian Craig, a third-generation Kenyan whose family helped establish a black rhinoceros sanctuary in the 1980s, after poachers had brought rhino populations to the point of extinction.

Our work with Lewa will consolidate and ensure permanent conservation of a 62,000-acre landscape that protects essential water resources, dry season refuge, wildlife migration routes, and habitat for rhinos and Grevy’s zebra.

The Nature Conservancy will always rely on innovative partners to push the envelope and help us achieve more than we thought possible. The future security of our natural world depends on that continuing vision, innovation and audacity.

Mark Tercek
President and CEO
The Nature Conservancy

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