Since 1951, The Nature Conservancy has been working in partnership with local communities, government agencies and private businesses to protect the natural landscapes that harbor the diversity of plant and animal life on Earth. Their mission is 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 Nature Conservancy works in all 50 United States and in more than 30 countries around the world.
The Approach
Nature Conservancy have developed a strategic, science-based planning process, called Conservation by Design, which helps them identify the highest-priority places—landscapes and seascapes that, if conserved, promise to ensure biodiversity over the long term. And for more than two decades, they’ve been guided by this framework. Conservation by Design is a systematic approach that determines where to work, what to conserve, and what strategies to use. By looking at data over time, they can measure how effective they’ve been.
Conservation by Design marries a collaborative, science-based approach with key analytical methods that allows them to assess and plan actions. In the more than 30 countries in which we work, Conservation by Design enables the Conservancy to preserve healthy ecosystems that support people and host the diversity of life on Earth.
A New Vision to Meet Increasing Threats
But despite all the progress, a rapidly expanding human population, damaging industrial and agricultural practices and other dynamics continue to threaten our natural world and quality of life.
Plant and animal species are disappearing at rates estimated to be 100 to 1,000 times greater than normal. And the benefits that nature provides people — from fresh water to food to flood control — are also under siege.
How is the Conservancy responding? By setting a new goal: to conserve “enough of everything,” not just the rarest or most imperiled species or places. This means at least doubling the rate of effective conservation around the globe with the next 10 years. The aim is to create a world in which the ecosystems that sustain all life — people as well as plants and animals — are valued and endure for generations. Conservation by Design allows them to achieve meaningful, lasting conservation results.
Worldwide, there will be thousands of these precious places. Taken together, they form something extraordinary: a vision of conservation success and a roadmap for getting there—the Conservation Blueprint. Simply put, by protecting and managing these Last Great Places over the long term, we can secure the future of the natural world.
Very active in Florida, below are some projects and stories.
Visit their site for more at https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/florida/
Indian River Lagoon
Here in Brevard County, the Indian River Lagoon is the most diverse estuary in North America, harboring 50 imperiled plant and animal species. Stretching 156 miles along Florida’s east coast from Ponce Inlet in Volusia County to Jupiter Inlet in Palm Beach. The lagoon supports a multi-million dollar commercial fishing industry as well as recreation and tourism.
The Nature Conservancy is working at multiple levels to address the varied and complex threats to the Indian River Lagoon.
- The Conservancy works with the state of Florida, local governments, water management districts, and local organizations and citizens to protect and manage critical natural areas along the lagoon and within the lagoon watershed.
- The Conservancy coordinates the Indian River Lagoon Blueway Project—a state effort to acquire more than 22,000 acres of buffer lands along the lagoon.
- In Mosquito Lagoon, the Conservancy is coordinating an oyster restoration project developed by the University of Central Florida. The goal is to restore about 40 acres of oyster reef habitat within the Canaveral National Seashore. Download a fact sheet about the oyster reef restoration project.
- Conservancy scientists are addressing the problems of invasive species in the region.
Saving Florida Manatees by Restoring Springs
Promoting Sustainable Snapper and Grouper Fisheries
Florida Oyster Reef Restoration
The success of The Nature Conservancy relies on the support of communities, businesses and people like you.