Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a prominent American nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of threatened ecosystems and their biodiversity. Founded in 1951 and based in Arlington, Virginia, it emerged from earlier ecological initiatives dating back to the early 20th century. The organization is known for acquiring land through donations and purchases, while also collaborating with landowners and government agencies to develop conservation plans. By utilizing tools such as conservation easements, it encourages private landowners to protect their land while maintaining ownership, all while providing them with potential tax benefits.
As of 2021, the Nature Conservancy boasted over one million members and operated in all fifty U.S. states and more than thirty countries, managing over 48 million hectares of land. Its projects span various environmental issues, including water conservation, forestry, marine habitats, and climate change. The organization engages in partnerships with corporations, governmental bodies, and other environmental groups, primarily funding its efforts through private donations.
Despite its accomplishments, the Nature Conservancy has faced criticism regarding its land acquisitions and some of its projects, which critics argue may overlook the rights of indigenous peoples or threaten endangered species. The organization has been involved in several notable conservation efforts in the U.S. and internationally, and it encourages public participation through initiatives like the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign and the Adopt an Acre program.
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Nature Conservancy
IDENTIFICATION: American nonprofit organization that works to preserve threatened ecosystems and the plants and animals that inhabit them
DATE: Founded in 1951
By purchasing land and by helping other landowners to develop conservation plans, the Nature Conservancy has been successful in protecting unspoiled areas from development and pollution.
The Nature Conservancy, based in Arlington, Virginia, traces its origins to a committee of the Ecological Society of America, which was founded in 1915. In 1946, the committee became the Ecologists’ Union, which changed its name to the Nature Conservancy in 1950 and was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1951. The group, which included research scientists and conservation advocates, began acquiring land through donation and purchase and collaborating with other agencies to manage public lands to sustain biodiversity.
During the 1960’s the Nature Conservancy helped create a new tool for encouraging conservation, the conservation easement, which enables private landowners to receive tax benefits for conserving their land and restricting development while retaining ownership. By 2021 the Nature Conservancy had more than one million members and branches in all fifty US states, as well as in more than thirty other countries. It owned more than 48,000,000 hectares (119,000,000) of land, and was involved with other landowners in hundreds of projects addressing the conservation of water, forests, and marine habitats, as well as issues related to climate change.
The Nature Conservancy partners with corporations, government agencies, and other environmental groups, as well as with private landowners. Most of its funding comes from private donations, although some of its experimental projects are supported by government grants. The organization has helped to create and preserve several important areas throughout the United States, including the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California, the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Oklahoma, the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado, and Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota. It also conducts programs in other countries and has helped organize debt-for-nature swaps, under which developing nations have some of their international debt canceled in exchange for conserving tracts of ecologically valuable land. In addition to working internationally on an increasingly large scale, the Nature Conservancy encourages its many members to participate in efforts such as the Plant a Billion Trees Campaign, which plants one tree in Brazil for every dollar donated, and its Adopt an Acre program, which allows donors to designate particular habitats to be protected through their donations.
The Nature Conservancy is the wealthiest environmental group in the world, with more than one billion dollars in assets, and its large size and tremendous influence have created controversy. Critics have charged that some of the organization’s acquisitions and logging, drilling, and mining projects, while intended to be models of sustainable development, have ignored the rights of indigenous peoples or threatened endangered species. The group’s advocacy of integrated fire management has also been controversial. In addition, the Nature Conservancy has been criticized for acquiring private lands through charitable gifts and then reselling them against the wishes of donors, often at large profit to the US federal government. In 2022, a group of more than 150 conservation and environmental non-profit organizations signed an open letter alleging that the Nature Conservancy was overly supportive of the logging industry at the expense of environmental conservation.
Bibliography
Birchard, Bill. Nature’s Keepers: The Remarkable Story of How the Nature Conservancy Became the Largest Environmental Organization in the World. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2005.
Brewer, Richard. Conservancy: The Land Trust Movement in America. Lebanon, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2004.
Colman, Zack. "'The System Was Broken:' How The Nature Conservancy Prospered But Ran Aground." Politico, 7 July 2019, www.politico.com/story/2019/07/07/nature-conservancy-discrimination-leadership-turnover-1399149. Accessed 22 July 2024.
Quaranda, Scot. "Release: The Nature Conservancy Exposed for Promoting Industrial Logging and Wood Products." Dogwood Alliance, 5 Apr. 2022, dogwoodalliance.org/2022/04/release-the-nature-conservancy-exposed-for-promoting-industrial-logging-and-wood-products/. Accessed 22 July 2024.