Nature Now

In May 2020, I joined The Nature Conservancy as chief executive officer—one of the proudest and most joyous days in my 25-year career in conservation. Of course, the first few weeks did not go as I expected. Or the first few months. The deadly COVID-19 pandemic surged, wreaking havoc on fam­ilies, health care systems and economies around the world. Nearly a year later, many of us continue to work from home and maintain physical distance from friends, colleagues and loved ones.

While it was a challenging first chapter for me at TNC, an or­ganization I had long admired and hoped to work for one day, we were able to forge connections and make remarkable progress.

I “met” thousands of colleagues and hundreds of trustees and supporters on Zoom instead of in person. My colleagues and I learned about our partnerships with Indigenous com­munities to use fire to restore healthy forests through conversations and photos, without ever feeling the heat of a controlled burn. We celebrated the creation of Colorado’s new 20,000-acre Fishers Peak State Park without looking up at the towering mountains. And we learned how to plant cacao trees via a social messaging app alongside planters in Brazil without holding a seedling in our hands or smelling the damp soil of the surrounding rainforest. You can learn more about these and other TNC projects in the stories that follow.

Many of the challenges that marked 2020—a global pandemic, record temperatures, fires and hurricanes, and long-overdue reckonings with racist systems and calls for equity—are continuing to impact our lives. But 2020 was also marked by a spirit of resilience, tenacity and creativity. The world came together to tackle problems in new ways, with unprecedented speed and collaboration. Never before has the scientific community rallied so many minds and resources so quickly. The development of powerful new vaccines in less than a year has raised hopes for quick action on other global threats, like the climate emergency.

This past year we learned, with more clarity than ever before, just how interconnected our health and well-being are to the health of our planet. In May 2020, the World Health Organization published its Manifesto for a Healthy Recovery from COVID-19, which recommends protecting and preserving nature as a top priority. Protecting nature supports economies, provides clean air and water and healthy food, and it can also reduce the risk of future zoonotic disease out­breaks, which science tells us are driven in part by habitat loss and climate change.

Indeed, the pandemic revealed the power of nature to help heal—not only through nature-driven solutions like regen­erative agriculture, carbon sequestration and clean-energy sources like wind and solar but also in helping many people manage life in a world turned upside down. In 2020, visits to natural areas and parks expanded to record levels, outdoor gear and bicycle sales boomed, backyard birding took off in popularity, and hiking and nature walks surged. Around the world, people rekindled their connections to nature and sought solace in the outdoors.

With this optimistic spirit, I reflect on all that The Nature Conservancy was able to accomplish with the help of partners, supporters and our volunteer leadership in 2020—and look ahead to a promising decade of nature conservation at a global scale. I am hopeful we can harness the tenacity and resilience that all of us developed in this difficult year to build a better future together.

Warm wishes,
Jennifer Morris
Chief Executive Officer, The Nature Conservancy