Nature Conservancy

Nature Conservancy, nonprofit organization established in 1951 to preserve or aid in the preservation of natural environments. It protects wilderness areas in the United States and Canada and is affiliated with similar groups in Latin America and the Caribbean. It maintains the world's largest private system of nature sanctuaries.

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Nature Conservancy

Nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental conservation and the preservation of biodiversity, founded in 1951, that operates the largest private system of nature sanctuaries in the world. It owns and manages more than 1,500 preserves throughout the U.S., comprising more than 9 million acres (3.8 million hectares) of ecologically significant land, and has expanded into Latin America and the Pacific. Government-administered programs identify the relative abundance of plant and animal species and the habitats they need to survive, and the Conservancy then acquires—through gifts, exchanges, easements, debt-for-nature swaps, purchases, and other nonconfrontational arrangements—areas that are home to threatened species.