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Tonging for oysters, Apalachicola Bay, Florida. © Richard Bickel
Pachaug State Forest, Connecticut. © Michael Melford |
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| This Nature Field Guide to The Nature Conservancy is intended to be a useful reference for those interested in learning about where and how The Nature Conservancy works. It is a representative, not comprehensive, catalog of our work around the world. |
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Nature Project Profiles
The field guide profiles 86 conservation projects. Every state and country program chose one project to feature. A handful of “wild cards” — other timely, far-reaching projects — were selected by regional directors. All are portfolio sites, meaning they were identified during ecoregional planning, or likely will be included in a portfolio once planning is completed.
All of the featured projects are landscapes, and sometimes seascapes—large areas of land and water that can encompass public lands like national parks and forests, marine protected areas, towns and communities, tribal and indigenous |
San Pedro Riparian Conservation Area, Arizona.
© Tom Bean |
| lands, and a varied mixture of private lands, including our own preserves. They embrace watersheds, coastlines, rivers, islands, lakes, volcanoes, mountains, grasslands and coral reefs. |
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Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia.
© Byron Jorjorian |
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Activities
Each project site allows recreational experiences that, done responsibly, do not negatively impact the environment. The Nature Conservancy understands that people want to enjoy the biodiversity we all work so hard to protect. Guaranteeing the continuation of species of all types for the enjoyment of future generations is one of the primary reasons people support our organization. |
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Strategies
Each project profile identifies practical ways to reduce or eliminate threats through acquisition of interests in land and water, adaptive management or restoration of lands and waters, public policies based upon sound science, and promotion of compatible human uses.
Stresses
Each project site is threatened in particular ways, such as by habitat reduction or fragmentation, changes in natural flow patterns of waterways, or changes in the number of species in a forest, grassland or coral reef. |
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Initiatives
The Initiatives are intended to address pervasive ecological threats across large landscapes and ocean realms. They are cross-boundary in scale and cross-cutting in scope. Through them, we can implement strategies that bring conservation to multiple areas and that address complex issues of public policy and socioeconomic behavior. Five conservation initiatives were chartered by The Nature Conservancy’s Executive Leadership Team in 2002: Fire, Freshwater, Global Climate Change, Invasive Species and Marine. |
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Organ pipe cactus, Sea of Cortez, Baja California, Mexico.
© Art Wolfe |
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