Partners & Protection

With a far-reaching conservation vision and the commitment of our members, trustees, staff and volunteers the Conservancy is an architect of hope. Science guides our work by indentifying Earth's most important natural places. Using innovative tools, we protect and restore priority sites to enrich the quality of life now and for future generations.

Department of Interior Recognizes Colorado River Project with Partners in Conservation Award

Arizona Conservation Science
Arizona's Conservation Science Program supports this mission through work in three areas: (1) conservation planning to identify the native systems and places needed to maintain the region’s biological diversity; (2) monitoring and research to understand how our ecological systems operate and to promote science-based adaptive management; and (3) development of scientific assessments to better understand land management needs. Much of our work is done in collaboration with agencies and institutions. Studies and datasets posted on this website are available free of charge. Enter the site.

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Go Green!
The Conservancy in Arizona has adopted “green” or sustainable practices and goals to serve as a model of environmental sustainability in Arizona. Learn more about green practices including rainwater harvesting, water conservation, office and management practices and take a self-audit to identify your energy use then set goals to lower it.

Conservation Easements
Conservation easements are voluntary land use agreements that are one of the most powerful, effective tools available for the conservation of private lands. Their use has successfully protected millions of acres of wildlife habitat and open space, and hundreds of miles of rivers, all while keeping property in private hands and generating significant public benefits. Learn more

The Malpai Borderlands Group
The Nature Conservancy works closely with The Malpai Borderlands Group (MBG) outside Douglas, Arizona. The group of ranchers and local residents, with the cooperation of scientists, government agencies and conservation organizations like the Conservancy, is working to preserve open space, biological communities, and traditional livelihoods like ranching in an area encompassing 800,000 acres, of which about 57 percent is private land and the rest a mix of state and federal lands.

The remote region in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico boasts 48 sensitive species, some federally listed as endangered or threatened. The area is continuous open space, ranging from desert grasslands in the valleys to pine-oak woodlands in the mountains. The MBG goal is to restore and maintain the natural processes that create and protect a healthy, unfragmented landscape to support a diverse, flourishing community of human, plant and animal life in our borderlands region. Together, they will accomplish this by working to encourage profitable ranching and other traditional livelihoods, which will sustain the open space nature of our land for generations to come.

Watershed Graphic

How We Protect Watersheds
Explore a cool interactive feature to see how the Conservancy protects freshwater resources worldwide.

Securing Water
Protecting our most fragile river systems in Arizona for today and tomorrow.

San Pedro River
The San Pedro flows north from the Mexican state of Sonora into Arizona to join the Gila River, one of only two major rivers that flows north out of Mexico into the United States. It also is one of the last few large undammed large rivers in the Southwest. Learn more

Defending Against Silent Invaders
These invaders arrived under the radar, their threat unknown or unannounced. Plants from other regions and continents have gained hold in our deserts, grasslands, forests and streams, aggressively displacing native vegetation. They are now wreaking havoc—fueling unnatural wildfires, decreasing water quantity and quality and degrading fish and wildlife habitat.

To combat this invasion, the Arizona Wildlands Invasive Plant Working Group, a coalition of more than 20 governmental and non-governmental entities including the Conservancy, scientifically evaluated dozens of problematic species. Learn more about silent invaders