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The Nature Conservancy
Image:Logo Nature.gif
Founded1951
HeadquartersArlington, Virginia
Area servedGlobal
MethodConservation by Design
Revenue$1. In business revenue or revenues is Income that a company receives from its normal business activities usually from the sale of goods and services The dollar (often represented by the Dollar sign: "$" is the name of the official Currency in several countries dependencies and other 02 billion USD (2006) [1]
MembersOver 1 million[2]
Slogan"Protecting nature. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been The word million In standard English, the -lli- in million is pronounced with an l-sound followed by a A slogan is a memorable Motto or Phrase used in a Political, commercial, Religious and other context as a repetitive expression of Preserving life"
Websitehttp://www.nature.org
This article is about the US charitable organization. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages For the former UK government organization, see Nature Conservancy (UK). The Nature Conservancy was a British government agency established by Royal Charter in 1949

The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization working to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the This is a list of environmental organizations. See also Environmental organization Intergovernmental organizations International organizations Plants are living Organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Biodiversity is the variation of Life forms within a given Ecosystem, Biome or for the entire Earth. EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001 [2]

Founded in 1951, The Nature Conservancy works in more than 30 countries, including all 50 United States, with an increasingly global reach. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Conservancy has over one million members, has protected more than 69,000 square kilometers (17 million acres) in the United States and more than 473,000 square kilometers (117 million acres[3]) internationally. The acre is a unit of Area in a number of different systems including the imperial and U The organization's total support and revenue was $1. 28 billion in fiscal year 2007 with assets totaling $5. A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is a period used for calculating annual ("yearly" Financial statements in Businesses 42 billion. [4]

The Nature Conservancy rated as one of the most trusted national organizations in Harris Interactive polls in 2007[5], 2006 [6], and 2005 poll[7]. Harris Interactive ( is an American Market research company that specializes in Public opinion research using both telephone and online Forbes magazine rated The Nature Conservancy's fundraising efficiency at 88% in its 2005 survey of the largest U. Forbes is an American Publishing and media company Its flagship publication Forbes magazine is published bi-weekly S. charities. [8] The Conservancy received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator in 2005[9] and was named by the organization that year on their list of "10 of the Best Charities Everyone's Heard Of. Charity Navigator is an independent non-profit organization that evaluates American charities. "

Contents

Timeline

1915 
The Ecological Society of America is formed. From its beginning, there is some disagreement about its mission: Should it exist only to support ecologists and publish research or should it also pursue an agenda to preserve natural areas?
1917 
From the activist wing within the Ecological Society, the Committee for the Preservation of Natural Conditions, chaired by Victor Shelford, is created.
1926 
The Committee publishes The Naturalist's Guide to the Americas, an attempt to catalog all the known patches of relatively undisturbed nature left in North America and in parts of Latin America.
1946 
The Committee reforms itself as the Ecologists' Union, resolving to take “direct action” to save threatened natural areas.
1950 
The Ecologists' Union changes its name to The Nature Conservancy.
1951 
The Nature Conservancy is incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the District of Columbia on October 22.
1954 
The Nature Conservancy grants its first official chapter charter in Eastern New York, thereby launching the first in a network of chapters and field offices that grows to cover the entire United States.
1955 
Land acquisition, a key protection tool for the Conservancy, begins with a 60 acre purchase along the Mianus River Gorge on the New York/Connecticut border. The Conservancy provides $7,500 to finance the purchase, with the provision that the loan be repaid for use in other conservation efforts. The revolving loan fund that results — the Land Preservation Fund — is still the organization’s foremost conservation tool.
1961 
The Nature Conservancy embarks on its first partnership with a public agency, the Bureau of Land Management, to help comanage an important old-growth forest in California.
The Nature Conservancy receives its first donated conservation easement, on 6 acres of Bantam River salt marsh in Connecticut. The easement allows the landowner to retain title to the ecologically valuable property while giving the Conservancy the right to enforce restrictions on certain types of harmful activities.
1965 
A gift from the Ford Foundation enables the Nature Conservancy to hire its first full-time, paid president, Tom Richards, a former IBM executive. Richards introduces management techniques from IBM.
1966 
The Nature Conservancy purchases Mason Neck, Virginia, as part of a plan to later sell it to the federal government. It is the first such deal of this magnitude with the government — an arrangement that comes to be known as a government co-op. Pat Noonan is president.
1970 
Robert E. Jenkins joins the Conservancy as Chief Scientist. He focuses TNC on the central mission of preserving biodiversity and leads the organization ultimately to create and foster, beginning in 1974, a 50-state biological inventory, introducing scientific rigor to land acquisition choices.
1972 
The Nature Conservancy helps create the Golden Gate National Recreation Area - one of the most visited national parks in the United States. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA is a US National Recreation Area administered by the National Park Service that surrounds the San Francisco Huey Johnson - Western Director of the Conservancy - convinces the Gulf Oil Corporation to cancel a housing development project called Marincello and sell the land to the Nature Conservancy for $6. Marincello was a failed development project in Marin County California that would have put a metropolis full of homes apartments and hotels in a planned community atop the 5 million. This key part of the Marin Headlands was then transferred to the GGNRA to help make up the national park surrounding the Golden Gate. The Marin Headlands is a hilly area at the southernmost end of Marin County California, above the Golden Gate.
1974 
The Natural Heritage Network is launched by the Science Division. The network ultimately comes to reside in and be supported by the governments of all 50 states, most of Canada, and a dozen other countries in the New World. The first state is South Carolina, the second Mississippi, the third, a few months later, Oregon. A core methodology is developed over the following decades based on strictly comparable "elements" of biodiversity, assessment of their status, and locating occurrences of those most imperiled. The methodology becomes the national standard and is adopted by numerous partner organizations, university researchers, and agencies of the federal government.
1980 
The Nature Conservancy expands and relaunches its International Conservation Program, focused on Latin America, to identify two things: areas in need of protection and conservation organizations in need of technical and financial assistance. William D. Blair is president.
1988 
With the purchase of $240,000 in Costa Rican debt, The Nature Conservancy completes its first “debt-for-nature” swap to support conservation in Braulio Carillo National Park. The Conservancy signs a landmark agreement with the U. S. Department of Defense to assist in managing 25 million acres (100,000 km²) of military land.
1989 
With funding from the U. S. Congress, The Nature Conservancy launches the Parks in Peril program, designed to protect 50 million acres (200,000 km²) in Latin America and the Caribbean by helping local nonprofit and governmental organizations provide effective park stewardship. Frank Boren is president.
The Nature Conservancy purchases the 32,000 acre (130 km²) Barnard Ranch in Oklahoma’s Osage Hills and establishes the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Here, the Conservancy has undertaken its largest restoration effort to date, re-creating a fully functioning tallgrass prairie by reintroducing bison and fire to the ecosystem.
1990 
A new office in Koror, Republic of Palau, represents The Nature Conservancy’s first expansion beyond the Western Hemisphere.
1991 
The Nature Conservancy launches its Last Great Places: An Alliance for People and the Environment initiative, a multinational, $300 million effort to protect large-scale ecosystems by making people part of the solution. The initiative emphasizes core reserve areas surrounded by buffer zones, where appropriate human uses are encouraged. John Sawhill is president.
1994 
The Nature Conservancy opens its first South American office, in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia.
1995 
The Nature Conservancy adopts Conservation by Design, a cutting-edge ecoregional approach for setting conservation priorities and taking action. Drawing on the lessons learned through the Last Great Places initiative and guided by scientific data from the Natural Heritage Network, the Conservancy begins to employ this framework for identifying the suite of sites that must be protected to conserve the biological diversity of the Western Hemisphere.
1999 
The Nature Conservancy's Membership surpasses 1 million.
2000 
The Conservancy announces The Campaign for Conservation, an effort to raise $1 billion to preserve 200 Last Great Places and complete a Conservation Blueprint identifying the places that must be conserved to ensure lasting protection of our natural heritage. The Campaign concluded at the end of 2003 after raising a total $1. 4 billion.
The Conservancy spins off its 85-center Natural Heritage Network into a new independent organization, the Association for Biodiversity Information (later named NatureServe).
The Conservancy and the Association for Biodiversity Information publish Precious Heritage: The Status of Biodiversity in the United States, the most comprehensive analysis to date of biodiversity in the United States. Precious Heritage warns that 1/3 of the plant and animal species found in the United States are in peril.
2001 
Steve McCormick begins as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Nature Conservancy in February.
The Nature Conservancy turns 50. In celebration, 12 renowned photographers, including Annie Leibovitz and William Wegman, capture the rich and complex splendor of some of the “Last Great Places” in the Conservancy’s In Response to Place photography exhibit.
The Nature Conservancy acquires property for Oregon’s Zumwalt Prairie Preserve on the edge of Hells Canyon in Wallowa County. The Nature Conservancy's 42-square-mile (110 km²) preserve includes extensive native bunchgrass prairie habitats and wooded canyons descending to the Imnaha River. Creeks on the preserve harbor spawning grounds for endangered Snake River steelhead and chinook salmon. Zumwalt Prairie is also renowned for its concentrations of breeding hawks and eagles and other wildlife.
2002 
The Nature Conservancy signs an agreement in January to purchase about 97,000 acres (390 km²) of one of Colorado's largest and most important natural areas – the Baca Ranch. The acquisition is the first of a complex series of transactions that by 2005 is expected to create the Great Sand Dunes National Park and a new Baca National Wildlife Refuge, as well as add land to the Rio Grande National Forest.
With a commitment of $1. 1 million from The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and the World Wildlife Fund, the U. S. and Peruvian governments sign a historic agreement in June to protect 10 tropical rainforest areas covering more than 27. 5 million acres (111,000 km²) within the Peruvian Amazon.
2003 
Transforming a bankruptcy into a conservation opportunity, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund, partnered with Chilean environmental organizations to protect the rare plants and wildlife on 147,500 acres (597 km²) of biologically rich temperate rainforest in the Valdivian Coastal Range in southern Chile. The Valdivian Coastal Range is a mountain range in southern Chile, along the Pacific coast
The Nature Conservancy and The National Park Service jointly purchased the 116,000 acre (469 km²) Kahuku Ranch in Hawaii for addition to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The purchase increases the size of the 217,000 acre (878 km²) park by fifty percent, and is the largest land conservation transaction in Hawaii’s history.
2004 
After more than a decade of work to conserve the 151-square-mile (390 km²) Baca Ranch in Colorado, The Nature Conservancy completes the last of a complex set of real estate transactions, clearing the way for the protection of the ranch and the designation of the nation’s newest national park, the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is a United States National Park located in the easternmost parts of Alamosa County and Saguache County,
During a five-week expedition through Indonesia’s karst systems – limestone caves, cliffs and sinkholes – a team of international scientists led by The Nature Conservancy discover several new species, including a “monster” cockroach that is believed to be the largest known species of cockroach in the world.
2005 
The Nature Conservancy, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and other partners announce that the ivory-billed woodpecker, thought to have gone extinct in 1946, had been rediscovered in the Big Woods of Arkansas. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker ( Campephilus principalis) a very large member of the Woodpecker family, Picidae, is officially listed as an
2006-2007 
The Nature Conservancy announces its plans to work in Africa. The Discovery Channel names the Nature Conservancy as its "Conservation Partner" and donates Public Service Announcement airtime to TNC to run during its Planet Earth series of 2007.
A program that enables the buyout of bottom-trawling fishing permits in Monterey Bay, CA is established. Fishermen are compensated for their compliance and a move towards more sustainable practices that are less harmful to marine life begins.
2007 
The Conservancy purchases the 6,000-acre (24 km²) Fitzgerald Ranch, 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Lubbock, Texas to protect a large piece of native shortgrass prairie and a population of at least 300 Lesser Prairie Chickens. The shortgrass prairie Ecosystem of the North American Great Plains is a Prairie that formerly encompassed lands from the eastern foothills of the The Lesser Prairie Chicken, Tympanuchus pallidicinctus, a species in the Grouse family is slightly smaller and paler than its near relative the Greater [10]

Approach

The Nature Conservancy takes a scientific approach to conservation, selecting the areas it seeks to preserve based on analysis of what is needed to ensure the preservation of the local plants, animals, and ecosystems. The Nature Conservancy is one of the world's largest environmental organizations as measured by number of members and area protected. This is a list of environmental organizations. See also Environmental organization Intergovernmental organizations International organizations It is a nonprofit organization supported primarily by private donations. A non-profit organization ( abbreviated "NPO" also "not-for-profit" is a legally constituted Organization whose objective is to support or engage

The Nature Conservancy works with all sectors of society including businesses, individuals, communities, partner organizations, and government agencies to achieve its goals. The Nature Conservancy is known for working effectively and collaboratively with traditional land owners such as farmers and ranchers, with whom it partners when such a partnership provides an opportunity to advance mutual goals. The Nature Conservancy is in the forefront of private conservation groups implementing prescribed fire to restore and maintain healthy ecosystems and working to address the threats to biodiversity posed by non-native and invasive plants and animals. An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants animals and micro-organisms( Biotic factors in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical ( Introduced species|Weed Invasive species is a phrase with several definitions

The Nature Conservancy has pioneered new land preservation techniques such as the conservation easement and debt for nature swaps. In the United States, a conservation easement is an Encumbrance &mdash sometimes including a transfer of usage rights ( Easement) &mdash which creates A conservation easement is a way for land owners to ensure that their land remains in its natural state while capitalizing on some of the land's potential development value. Debt for nature swaps are tools used to encourage natural area preservation in third world countries while assisting the country economically as well: in exchange for setting aside land, some of the country's foreign debt is forgiven.

Featured project sites

Nature Conservancy of Tennessee's William B. Clark, Sr., Nature Preserve on the Wolf River at Rossville, Tennessee.
Nature Conservancy of Tennessee's William B. Clark, Sr. , Nature Preserve on the Wolf River at Rossville, Tennessee.

The Nature Conservancy's expanding international conservation efforts include work in North America, Central America, and South America, Africa, the Pacific Rim, the Caribbean, and Asia. South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a The Pacific Rim refers to the countries and cities located around the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting Increasingly, the Conservancy focuses on projects at significant scale, recognizing the threat habitat fragmentation brings to plants and animals. Habitat fragmentation is a process of environmental change important in Evolution and Conservation biology. Below are a few examples of such work:

The Nature Conservancy was instrumental in the creation in 2004 of the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is a United States National Park located in the easternmost parts of Alamosa County and Saguache County, The State of Colorado ( or chiefly by nonresidents) is a state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. The Conservancy's efforts in China's Yunnan province, one of the most vital centers of plant diversity in the northern temperate hemisphere, serve as a model for locally-based ecotourism with a global impact. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Ecotourism, also known as ecological tourism, is a form of Tourism that appeals to ecologically and socially conscious individuals The Nature Conservancy and its conservation partner, Pronatura Peninsula Yucatán, are working to halt deforestation on private lands in and around the 1. Deforestation is the conversion of Forested areas to non-forest land for use such as Arable land, Pasture, urban use logged area or wasteland 8 million acre (7,300 km²) Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, along the Mexico-Guatemala border. The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve ( Reserva de la Biosfera de Calakmul) is located at the base of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, in the state of Campeche The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Guatemala (República de Guatemala) is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west the Pacific Ocean to the southwest In November 2004, 370,000 acres (1,500 km²) of threated tropical forest in Calakmul were permanently protected under a historic land deal between the Mexican federal and state government, Pronatura Peninsula Yucatán, four local communities and the Conservancy.

The Nature Conservancy's programs in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are working together to build partnerships and enhance the profile of the conservation needs in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem by supporting voluntary, private land conservation of important wildlife habitat. The State of Idaho ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America. Montana ( is a state in the Western United States. One-third of the state in the western part contains numerous mountain ranges (approximately 77 named of the northern The State of Wyoming ( is a sparsely populated state in the western region of the United States. Conservation easements, land acquisition, stewardship agreements, grassbanks, prescribed fires and weed districts are a few of the tools the Conservancy and its partners use to protect this region's natural heritage. The Nature Conservancy's worldwide office is located in Arlington, Virginia.

The Conservancy was instrumental in the 2004 establishment of the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota. Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge was created on October 12 2004 the 545th National Wildlife Refuge in the United States. Minnesota ( Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers Glacial Ridge is reputed to be the largest tallgrass prairie and wetlands restoration project ever.

In 2007 the Nature Conservancy made a 161,000-acre (650 km²) purchase of New York forestland from Finch Paper Holdings LLC for $110 million, its largest purchase ever in that state. [11]

Criticisms

Over the years, The Nature Conservancy has faced a number of criticisms. They fall into the following main categories:

Other information

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ^ IRS Form 990
  2. ^ a b About The Nature Conservancy
  3. ^ About The Nature Conservancy - Non-profit Governance of The Nature Conservancy
  4. ^ Annual Report 2007
  5. ^ 2007 Harris poll
  6. ^ 2006 Harris poll
  7. ^ 2005 Harris poll
  8. ^ Nature Conservancy - Forbes.com
  9. ^ Charity Navigator Rating - The Nature Conservancy
  10. ^ http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/112507/loc_112507063.shtml Lubbock On-line. The timeline of environmental events is a historical account of events that have shaped humanity's perspective on the environment com
  11. ^ The Nature Conservancy (June 18, 2007). "The Nature Conservancy and Finch Paper Announce Adirondack Woodlands Transaction". Press release. A news release, media release, press release or press statement is a written or recorded Communication directed at members of the News
  12. ^ The Unsuitablog - The Nature Conservancy: Partnering With Poisoners
  13. ^ The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 18 Oct 2007
  14. ^ New York Times article
  15. ^ About The Nature Conservancy - Non-Profit Governance: Board of Directors of The Nature Conservancy - Non-Profit Governance
  16. ^ Nature Conservancy News Room - Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Nature Conservancy - Hank Paulson
  17. ^ U.S. Treasury - Biography of Henry M. Paulson, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury

External links

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