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The Great Rivers Partnership

Great Rivers That Work for People and Nature

Learn more about sustainable management of the world’s great rivers.

Bends in the upper Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), Yunnan province, southwestern China. ©Ami Vitale

Photos
Videos

Asian carp leaping in the Illinois River near Grafton, Illinois © Andrew Simpson/The Nature Conservancy

Mississippi River Scientist Helps Chinese Save Carp

GRP Fellow and USGS scientist Brian Ickes is helping save Asian carp in the Yangtze River.

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USGS scientists Yao Yin and Brian Ickes use a fine mesh seine to sample the Datong River, a tributary of the Upper Yellow River. © Xiaoming Sun/TNC

A Tale of Two Rivers

China trip strengthens partnership between Mississippi and Yangtze rivers.

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$Mississippi River basin © Jim Brekke {MissRiver_Brekke} [SLIDESHOW]$ Mississippi River, Minnesota © Jim Brekke (jimbrekke.com)

A Global Journey

See the accomplishments of the Great Rivers Partnership

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WOPA090126_D105 -- Mississippi River, Iowa

Forested islands create a maze in the Mississippi River near Iowa. The Upper Mississippi River is part of the Great Rivers Partnership, and is a priority conservation site for TNC. © Robert J. Hurt

GRP at the Waterways Council Seminar

Feb. 2012: Michael Reuter, director of TNC's Great Rivers Partnership, delivers a presentation.

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The Nature Conservancy is working with farmers and other landowners to improve water quality and wildlife habitat not only in the Root River in southeast Minnesota but elsewhere in the Mississippi River Basin. © Mark Godfrey/TNC

The Great Rivers Partnership (GRP) is a global effort to advance sustainable management of the world's great rivers for people and nature. The GRP focuses on entire river systems and brings together the best available science and diverse stakeholders—spanning sectors from industry and navigation to academia and government—to develop and implement innovative solutions to issues threatening freshwater sustainability.

Great rivers are generally defined as floodplain rivers with seasonal floods that are sufficiently long-lasting, predictable and extensive. Plants, animals and people adapted to depend on the flood cycle of floodplain rivers for survival. These rivers are vital to the cultural heritage and economic prosperity of their regions. Unfortunately, great rivers of the world face challenges from unsustainable development practices.

The Conservancy ranks conservation of great rivers among its global priorities. A founding grant from Caterpillar Foundation and other key partners launched the GRP in 2005, and has helped support the Conservancy’s freshwater conservation of large river basins including:

the Mississippi River basin in the United States
Brazil's Paraguay-Paraná River system
China's Yangtze River

It has also advised the Conservancy’s work on the Zambezi River in Africa and the Magdalena River in Colombia. A distinctive component of the GRP has been facilitation of international learning exchanges to encourage the sharing of solutions across these river systems.

Learn more about the GRP’s early accomplishments in its five-year report and take a global journey to see how efforts first took shape. Plans to identify new focal rivers and expand the GRP’s international reach are currently underway.

See articles from past GRP e-newsletters and sign up for regular updates. Plus, explore these case studies to see how the GRP works.

March 01, 2012