How We Conserve and Restore Forests

Improving Forest Policies and Funding

All of these efforts to help the forests that improve our lives can get energized by government engaging with supportive policies and funding.  We work around the globe to provide science, know-how, and investments to create better outcomes for citizens and businesses through policy engagement. 

The Nature Conservancy was instrumental in helping pass the "fire funding fix" in 2018, which gave the U.S. Congress the ability to appropriate federal disaster funding to the Forest Service and Department of Interior for a portion of their wildfire suppression activities. This change stabilized overall agency budgets, and eliminated the need to chip away at non-fire programs to increase suppression budgets. 

Forests Offer Our Biggest Natural Climate Solution

Climate change is happening all over the world, threatening the well-being of people and wildlife.  But nature itself offers a solution. By storing carbon in growing trees, and other natural systems such as farms and coastal wetlands, we can accomplish one-third of the emission reductions needed by 2030 to keep global temperature increases below 1.5°.  Forests provide most of that carbon-storage opportunity, and The Nature Conservancy has projects around the world that are putting this solution to work.

• The Nature Conservancy is developing new financial and investment mechanisms to fight climate change and invest in saving the planet's forests. The Rio Bravo Reserve in Belize is an example of how it can be done.
• In the United States, the Conservancy’s Working Woodlands, Family Forest Carbon Program, and state programs are helping small private forest landowners participate in carbon markets, generating income so landowners can grow healthier, bigger trees that provide better carbon storage and wildlife habitat. 
• We are also working to prevent the loss of live trees to pests and pathogens, through programs like “Don’t Move Firewood”.  

Safely Restoring Fire’s Role in Forests

TNC has been working with fire since 1962, when we conducted our first controlled burn, and our approach has evolved from one that was primarily focused on managing our preserves to one that includes policy and finance, elevating the contributions of tribes and other indigenous peoples, growing skilled and diverse fire management workforces, and helping communities develop ways to live more safely with wildfire in forested areas.

• In the United States, TNC helps lead the Fire Learning Network, Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network, Indigenous Peoples Burning Network, maps conditions through LANDFIRE, helps train new fire workers in TREX programs, and performs controlled burns across tens of thousands of acres each year. 
• In some forests we are combining ecological thinning with a safe reintroduction of fire to improve forest health and habitat.

Urban Forestry

Trees in urban neighborhoods improve air quality and mental health, lower air temperatures, decrease flooding, and provide habitat for wildlife.  The Nature Conservancy is working around the country to increase and improve tree cover for people and wildlife.

The Nature Conservancy is working with residents of St Louis, Denver, Chicago, and other cities to improve outcomes for residents and students through tree planting and care. 

Mature shade trees provide the most benefits for our communities. To help protect these urban forest workhorses, The Nature Conservancy has a long-standing partnership with the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station and the University of Georgia to engage civic ecologists and conservation professionals in the monitoring and maintenance of mature trees through the Healthy Trees, Healthy Cities Initiative.

How YOU Can Help Forests

You play an important role in improving the health of forests, in your own neighborhood, and across the globe!  Here’s how you can help:

Donate to Plant a Billion, which pays for the planting and care of trees in critical forests around the globe— Brazil, China, Colombia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mexico, and the United States.