New Deputy Director Hired to Advance Freshwater Work for The Nature Conservancy’s Great Rivers Partnership

Peoria—April 17, 2006 —The Nature Conservancy announced the hiring of 38-year-old Peter Bryant as deputy director of its Great Rivers Partnership (GRP) today. Bryant will lead staff across three continents who work to sustain the world’s great river systems and the people, plants and animals that depend on them.

In his capacity as deputy director, Bryant will guide the Conservancy’s efforts to conserve river systems in three countries – the Yangtze River in China, the Paraguay and Paraná rivers in Brazil and the Mississippi River in the United States. He will also oversee the Great Rivers Center for Conservation and Learning, a virtual science center established by the GRP to house and share important data including research on ecological services that major rivers provide for free such as clean drinking water and food and the effect of land management practices on these systems.

“Peter’s experience and skill in building conservation programs by working with everyone from scientists to corporate CEOs will be a huge asset in protecting vital freshwater ecosystems,” said Michael Reuter, director of the Great Rivers Partnership. “It’s great to have him back with the Conservancy.”

Bryant rejoins the Conservancy after four years with WWF (formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund) International’s Global Marine Programme in Gland, Switzerland. As that program’s deputy director, he was responsible for strategic and business planning and program development. He also directed campaigns and initiatives to reduce commercial overfishing. Prior to his work at WWF, Bryant spent two years managing the Conservancy’s International Leadership Council in Arlington, Va. where he directed communications between the organization and its corporate partners, and was responsible for cultivating conservation agreements on agricultural and forestry lands.

“Freshwater conservation is an incredibly important environmental issue -- it’s essential to human health and welfare and has tremendous biodiversity benefits,” said Bryant, who will work out of Sante Fe, New Mexico. “The GRP has the ability to really transform the way freshwater conservation takes place around the world and to protect critical freshwater systems and landscapes.

“But to do so we must make freshwater conservation relevant from a political and public perspective. We need to demonstrate the relevance of our work in terms of sustainable livelihoods, poverty alleviation and the long-term sustainability of communities.”

The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.