The Nature Conservancy has announced that will be committing $25 million towards programs designed to prevent negative effects from global warming to hurt both humans and natural habitats around the world.
The funding, which will be spread over the next three years, will work to develop "ecosystem-based adaptation" and research ways in which green environmentally friendly infrastructure can be more effective and cost-efficient than traditional "gray" infrastructure.
The conservancy’s attempt to protect natural habitats will involve identifying two dozen field sites and testing various forms of ecosystem-based adaptation to determine their effectiveness, both in terms of cost and environmental friendliness.
Regions singled out by the conservancy as potential field sites were the Northern Reefs of Palau, the Great Lakes, and Coastal Louisiana.
The announcement of the commitment was made on September 24 at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) by the conservancy’s president and CEO Mark Tercek.
"We, along with many governments and communities, believe these adaptation strategies have significant potential. Now we are setting out to demonstrate how to scale it up to its full potential," said Tercek. "Through this commitment, we intend to show how preserving and enhancing nature and its natural systems is a cost-effective way to address the problems that vulnerable people and communities are dealing with right now because of climate change."
While at the CGI, the conservancy also reported on the "tremendous progress" being made on a $2 million pledge in 2006 to create a cost-effective framework to “reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation." Since its implementation, the conservancy has become a founding participant in the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, which has committed $165 million to help reduce emissions from deforestation.
Since its founding in 1951, the Nature Conservancy has established itself as a leading conservation organization, actively protecting more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of river all over the world, according to its website.
