Tackle Climate Change

Road Map to Refuge

As climate change forces species to move, new science is identifying habitats that can help them survive.

“Nature is changing and we can’t hold it steady, so we have to find a way to protect it while it shifts,” says Dr. Mark Anderson, TNC’s director of conservation science for the eastern U.S. Anderson helped lead the creation of TNC’s newly completed Resilient and Connected Landscapes mapping tool. In a sense, the tool serves as a map of “natural highways and neighborhoods” covering one-third of the continental U.S. The interactive map shows where plant and animal species have the best chance to move in response to growing climate threats—and find new places to call home. Studies show that each decade plants and animals have shifted approximately 11 miles north and 36 feet higher in elevation in response to the changing climate, making this project an essential conservation tool.

Siting Solar and Wind Power

Conservancy tools can help growth in renewables without harming natural lands.

The build-out of new renewable energy is underway, and at an unprecedented pace. Yet some of the most promising clean-energy sources, such as wind and large-scale solar installations, call for large areas of land. Scientists at TNC are showing how nations can meet global clean-energy goals while protecting natural lands.

Rainforest Reforestation

Honoring donor generosity with a Gratitude Forest.

To plant a single tree is an act of hope and faith in what’s to come. In Brazil’s Serra da Mantiqueira region in the endangered Atlantic Forest, TNC is planting seedlings one by one, bringing new life to deforested hillsides. With every tree planted, a Grati­tude Forest is taking root and touching the sky—honoring the generosity of TNC’s most devoted advocates.

In appreciation of our donors, TNC is nurturing this forest in a place of great need and possibility. Down­stream in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, people rely on the Mantiqueira’s forests to store and filter the water that makes life possible.

This Gratitude Forest is far from a single effort. It’s a piece of TNC’s inspiring Plant a Billion Trees campaign, be­ginning as a gift and then, like a seed, growing into a legacy for future generations.

Through the Gratitude Forest, TNC and partners are helping to restore the region’s living forests, inspired by our supporters, because we believe that the powerful act of planting a tree is an investment in the future of the planet.

Culture of Fire

Indigenous communities restore fire to the landscape.

Indigenous people, such as the Karuk, Yurok and Hupa peoples of present-day California, have been practicing controlled and intentional burns for millennia. Yet in many developed countries, these cultural fires, and their ecological benefits, largely disappeared by the 20th century often due to policies aimed at suppressing wildfire.

Through intersecting connections in Australia, Canada and the United States, TNC is supporting the efforts of Indigenous communities to revitalize use of cultural fires in today’s context. In TNC’s North America fire programs, which conduct roughly 600 burns on 100,000 acres every year, we now help facilitate or fund workshops, learning exchanges and community-based trainings that support Indigenous communities’ efforts to bring the benefits of cultural burning to people and landscapes alike.