UPS Foundation Awards Grants to Benefit Global Conservation

The Nature Conservancy Receives Funds for Brazil, China and Africa Projects

ATLANTA— December 18, 2008— UPS will deliver millions of holiday gifts this season, but only one—a grant to The Nature Conservancy’s programs in Brazil, China and Africa—will benefit the environment while supporting the culture and livelihood of people around the globe.

The UPS Foundation, the charitable arm of UPS, recently awarded a $300,000 grant to The Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s leading conservation organizations that works to protect ecologically important lands and waters in the all 50 states and more than 30 countries.

The UPS gift supports The Nature Conservancy’s Campaign for a Sustainable Planet—an ambitious goal of protecting at least 10 percent of the world's major habitat types (forests, lakes and rivers, oceans and coasts, deserts and aridlands, and grasslands) by 2015. From tree-planting efforts in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil to conservation initiatives for rural residents in the Yunnan Forest in China to reforestation efforts in Africa’s Highland Forest, UPS’ gift will help protect valuable forests for future generations.

Three Forests at Risk
• The Atlantic Forest of Brazil is one of the most critically threatened ecosystems on Earth. Encompassing eastern Brazil, northern Argentina and eastern Paraguay, the Atlantic Forest provides water for 70 percent of Brazil’s population. Waves of development have deposited more than 120 million people here, reducing the forest to only 7 percent of its original size, much in isolated fragments.

• In the temperate forests of northwest China’s Yunnan Province, four of Asia’s great rivers wind through high mountains and narrow canyons and valleys. Deforestation in the upper reaches of Yunnan’s globally important watersheds —due to the collection of timber for fuel and building materials—profoundly impacts the lives of 10 percent of Earth’s population that lives downstream and relies on these forests to provide erosion control, flood prevention and many other benefits.

• From Kenya’s mountain peaks to Tanzania’s lake shores, the remnant highland forests of East Africa shelter an incredible diversity of species. Essential to more than wildlife, these forests serve as a natural water tower that supplies drinking water to a heavily populated area. Little remains of the original forests and today’s highland forests face a host of threats, including agriculture and development, all largely driven by poverty.

The Atlantic Forests of Brazil: One Example of Conservation in Action
In the coming years, The Nature Conservancy plans to turn the tide on deforestation in the forests of Brazil. By 2015, the Conservancy and a wide range of partners will spur the planting of one billion native trees, reforesting 2.5 million acres and creating enormous forest corridors that will preserve, connect and buffer new and existing public protected areas.

"We believe our ambitious vision to restore one billion trees can only be accomplished by the support and commitment of those that truly believe local actions can have global impact,” said Miguel Calmon, Atlantic Forests program director for The Nature Conservancy. “We are pleased and grateful that a lead organization like UPS shares this vision and made such an important gift to help the Atlantic Forest become more sustainable."

A Valued Conservation Partner
Founded in 1951, The UPS Foundation has a tradition of providing support through grant programs and initiatives that help improve the quality of life in communities where UPS employees live and work. At the beginning of 2008, The UPS Foundation added an environmental sustainability focus area to their newly-adopted global philanthropic strategy.

The UPS Foundation has supported The Nature Conservancy since 1977 when it began matching its employees’ gifts to the Conservancy. In addition to these gifts, the UPS Foundation has funded volunteer activities and conservation priorities in Georgia. The recent UPS Foundation gift to international projects is the single largest gift the Foundation has ever awarded The Nature Conservancy.

"From Brazil to China and around the world, The Nature Conservancy has developed programs that provide the kind of sustainable and measurable impact we seek to fund," said Lisa Hamilton, president of The UPS Foundation. "The UPS Foundation is proud to support this important work."