Nature Conservancy

Nature Conservancy, nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental conservation and the preservation of biodiversity. It operates the largest private system of nature sanctuaries in the world. Founded in 1951 in Washington, D.C., it owns and manages more than 1,500 preserves throughout the United States, which comprise more than 9 million acres (3.8 million hectares) of ecologically significant land, and it has expanded into Canada, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. After government-administered programs identify the relative abundance of plant and animal species and the habitats they need to survive, the Nature Conservancy then acquires—through gifts, exchanges, easements, debt-for-nature swaps, purchases, and other nonconfrontational arrangements—areas that are home to threatened species.