Remaining silent about the destruction of nature is an endorsement of that destruction.

 

Quite awhile back I made a posting about Texas Conservation and a little bird asked me to post some time about how I felt about the track record and tactics of The Nature Conservancy (TNC).  I figured that I have blogged about 100 times since then so it should be high time for me to fulfill my promise.   

 

 

Basically The Nature Conservancy is one of the largest and most successful environmental organizations in the world.  Since, its humble beginnings in the 1950’s this group has expanded into an international group whose focus is on saving habitat  and promoting biological diversity around the globe.  As of 2003 The Nature Conservancy is credited with protecting 15,000,000 acres in the USA and an additional 102,000,000 acres worldwide.  They have also been a key group in protecting over 5,000 miles of rivers around the globe.  Not too shabby for a group that started out as a handful of field ecologists that saw that there needed to be more land protected for habitat.

 

 

The Nature Conservancy’s claims that the reasons for their outstanding success are based on these methods:

• We work closely with partners, corporations, indigenous people and traditional communities all over the world, and people like you.
• We have a science-based plan that achieves tangible results all over the world.
• We use a non-confrontational, collaborative approach.
• We continually strive to exercise integrity beyond reproach and to operate openly and transparently as we pursue our mission.

 

 

The thing that TNC seems to do best is using the national tax code to find ways that it pays for individuals and corporations to save money by setting aside land for conservation.  By the creation of conservation easements on property The Nature Conservancy works with landowners to make it possible for them to sell their land and insure that the land is protected and the landowner’s financial interests are also protected.   This capitalist approach to environmentalism seems to work and it is very appealing to big business and wealthy individuals.  

 

 

I am not personally comfortable with back room deals made with Cargill, 3M, Chevron, Disney, Monsanto and other multinational corporations, but I can’t fault the results that TNC has been able to achieve.   I personally don’t have the self control to sit down with the devil and broker a deal, but The Nature Conservancy does have those types of people on their staff.   I was recently forced to eat lunch with our state governor and it was all that I could do to keep myself from stabbing him in the face with my salad fork, much less work out a deal with him.   So, it is hard for me to understand people that can go out and make deals with the same corporations that are responsible for the destruction of our plant.

 

 

But that is just one side of The Nature Conservancy.  The other part is a far cry from the fat cats in their pleated khakis and $150 LL Bean outdoorsy shirts and their polished wingtips.  The part of TNC that I have been closely related to is the field biologists, preserve managers and front line ecologists that are the true root foundation of the organization.  Those hands on people are some of the most dedicated, hard working and passionate conservationists that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

 

 

I have worked hand in hand with these people and I am proud to support what they do.  Their long hard hours at low pay make real progress in conservation possible.  No matter what anyone says about The Nature Conservancy as a whole the workers in the field are beyond reproach.

 

 

I do have a couple of points that I don’t like about the way TNC does business.  Such as the high pay that the director receives and the way that land donated to TNC can then be sold off in order to buy other parcels of land.  But, I still donate my money to this group and would encourage others to do likewise.  The Nature Conservancy is one of the best things going in the environmental movement today.

 

Here are some other environmental groups that I highly recommend.

The Rewilding Institute

 

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

 

Earth Liberation Front

 

Sierra Club

 

 

All pictures in this posting were stolen from The Nature Conservancy’s website.  They are a small sampling of the many preserves which they operate in Texas.