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		Protected Areas Protected Areas What's New Threats to Protected Areas Benefits of Protected Areas What We Do   Create new   protected areas   Increase funding   Build support   Improve   management What You Can Do Where We Work Contact Us

Protect Nature! With your help, we can strengthen protected areas and conserve our planet’s lands and waters. Private Lands In addition to supporting publicly owned protected areas, the Conservancy also works with private landowners. Private lands conservation is an innovative tactic that leverages the increasing interest of the private sector to take part in conservation.

Since 1951, The Nature Conservancy has worked to preserve lands and waters that are essential to maintaining the diversity of life on our planet. From this beginning, our work has expanded from focusing on conserving individual places to strengthening national systems of protected areas. We work at all levels with a host of different partners, including governments, communities, park managers and other conservation organizations.  Together we are achieving a global conservation impact by establishing well-managed, properly funded and fully representative protected areas systems.

We work to secure conservation through protected areas by:

• Creating new protected areas where they are most needed.
• Ensuring long-term funding for protected areas.
• Building support and understanding about the benefits of protected areas to people.
• Strengthening the management of protected areas.

A Historic Opportunity

In 2004, 188 governments committed to developing well managed, properly funded and fully representative protected areas within their countries. These ground breaking commitments are known as the Program of Work on Protected Areas and represent one of the most far reaching and specific conservation commitments in history.  The Program of Work contains clear targets and timetables for success and we have pledged our support to help governments achieve them.  Working together, we can accelerate the rate of conservation around the world.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Dan Quinn (Rainbow Waterfall, Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, Bolivia); Photo © Photographer/Org; Photo  © Ron Geatz/The Nature Conservancy (Chinese and American scientists at Zhongdian in Yunnan Province in China).