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		Campaign for a Sustainable Planet Campaign Home Pledge your Support Learn About the Campaign Our Conservation Success Mark Tercek on the Campaign Lakes & Rivers Oceans & Coasts Forests Grasslands Deserts & Aridlands Global Strategies Conservation Capacity Climate Change

Get Involved There are many ways you can support our Campaign for a Sustainable Planet. You can make a gift today with our safe and secure donation form or explore how you can create a legacy for the natural world while meeting your philanthropic and financial goals. See a slideshow of amazing images from Southeast Asia's Coral Triangle marine area — one of the most biodiverse places on Earth and a focus of the Campaign. Go Deeper Where We Work Learn about our conservation work across the United States and in more than 30 countries around the world. About The Nature Conservancy Learn why The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. Science at the Conservancy Meet some of our more than 700 staff scientists and learn how everything The Nature Conservancy does is science-based.

The Campaign for a Sustainable Planet is a worldwide call-to-action to protect Earth's natural resources for future generations.

The Campaign will enable the Conservancy to achieve significant, global conservation results in each of the world's major habitat types — forests, oceans and coasts, lakes and rivers, grasslands, and deserts and aridlands.

And the Campaign will also equip the Conservancy to work effectively on global conservation strategies, climate change and gaps in the world's conservation capacity.

Conservation work on this scale is unprecedented. But so are the risks of doing nothing.

A Science-Based Blueprint for Success

Conservancy experts have led groundbreaking studies to examine global patterns of habitat loss and protection status.

Those studies have helped us build a holistic, worldwide model that objectively tells us where conservation must happen — and how:

• Forests affect everything from air quality to climate change to water supply — yet an area of forest the size of Panama disappears annually. We will expand our innovative strategies to stop deforestation — from acquiring private lands to helping develop forest carbon markets.
   
• Oceans and coasts are among the most threatened habitats on Earth — yet less than 1 percent of marine environments have any level of protection, endangering the billions of people who depend on them as well as countless other species. To meet the threats, we will scale up our signature marine solutions: creating protected areas, improving management of fisheries, restoring coastal ecosystems and implementing market-based solutions.
   
• Freshwater resources from lakes and rivers are dwindling, and more than one-half of humanity faces water shortages by 2050 without immediate action. We will continue our work in the most important rivers and lakes in the world — especially with farmers and other significant users of fresh water.
   
• Grasslands provide so much — food, pharmaceuticals, freshwater resources and wildlife habitat — but are the least protected habitats on Earth. We aim to protect millions of grassland acres, from Mongolia to North America's Great Plains to Argentina and Africa.
   
• Deserts and aridlands cover 30 percent of Earth's land surface, are inhabited by about 1 billion people — and are endangered by development and agriculture. From Texas to Australia, we're helping ensure these critical habitats remain healthy and productive.

We are also tackling global threats to Earth's sustainability — such as climate change — by testing strategies that can be rapidly replicated, adapted and expanded.

What's Required to Achieve the Goal

We have much to achieve through the Campaign. And everyone's help is needed. The Campaign's goals are beyond what we — or any other institution — have attempted, and we cannot do it alone.

We will partner with governments, businesses, non-profits, communities and individuals. We will work with some of the world's most economically challenged communities to preserve the lands and waters that they rely upon for their daily survival. We will also work with global leaders to address borderless threats such as climate change.

Through the Campaign for a Sustainable Planet, we envision a world where:

• Natural habitats and human communities coexist, and
• Climate is stable and natural resources are renewable, plentiful and secure.

Only with your help can we work towards realizing this vision — to ensure the health and survival of the natural world that sustains us all.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Chris Helzer/TNC (Sandhill cranes flying along the Platte River, Nebraska); © Emre Turak (Fish and coral in coastal waters surrounding Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia); © Sergio Pucci (Aerial photo of the forest at Reserva Forestal Earth, Costa Rica); © Chris Helzer/TNC (Canada goldenrod and big bluestem at Griffith Prairie, Nebraska); © Wayne Lawler/Ecopix courtesy of Australian Bush Heritage Fund (Flowering dune vegetation, Quennsland, Australia); © Li Xueliang (Desert spring, Altun Mountain Reserve, China); © Harley Soltes (Recording data on Ellsworth Creek, Washington); © Corbis (melting ice at polar icecap); © Jeff Yonover (Natural Light: Coral Triangle).