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Explore Conservation
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The basic concepts of Conservation by Design are simple: setting goals and priorities, developing strategies, taking action and measuring results.
Setting Goals and Priorities
Conservation goals describe the results we want to achieve for biodiversity. Based on the best available scientific information, The Nature Conservancy sets long-term goals for the abundance and geographic distribution of species and ecological systems necessary to ensure the long-term survival of all biodiversity on Earth.
We also set near-term goals — such as our current goal of conserving at least 10 percent of every major habitat type on Earth by 2015 — as "stepping stones" toward our global mission.
And to make the most effective progress toward our conservation goals, we establish priorities — those places, threats to biodiversity and strategic opportunities that are most in need of conservation action or promise the greatest conservation return on our investment.
Developing Strategies
Guided by those priorities, we work with others to design innovative conservation strategies to meet our goals — strategies tailored to our understanding of ecology and critical threats to biodiversity as well as to the social, political and economic forces at play. We seek solutions that will meet the needs of species and ecosystems as well as people.
Taking Action
The Conservancy is committed to place-based results by taking action locally, regionally and globally. The bulk of our resources — human and financial — are spent executing the strategies we develop together with partners. Our actions are varied and agile, but typically include:
- Investing in science to inform decision-making;
- Protecting and managing land and waters, as we did with the largest forest conservation deal in the United States;
- Forging strategic alliances with a variety of groups from all sectors;
- Creating and maintaining supportive public policies, practices and incentives;
- Strengthening the institutional capacity of governments and non-governmental organizations to achieve conservation results, through programs such as the Amazon Indigenous Training Center;
- Developing and demonstrating innovative conservation approaches, such as our work to create resilient networks of protected marine areas;
- Building an ethic and support for biodiversity conservation, such as we do with community restoration projects;
- Generating private and public funding, including through innovative debt-for-nature swaps.
Measuring Results
We measure our effectiveness by answering two questions: "How is the biodiversity doing?" and "Are our actions having the intended impact?" Tracking progress toward our goals and evaluating the effectiveness of our strategies and actions provide the feedback we need to adjust our goals, priorities and strategies and chart new directions.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Nancy Sefton (Waterfall); Photo © John Maier (Scientists with map).
