* Nature Conservancy aims to unleash market forces
* Has $1.3 billion in assets to conserve ecosystems
Andrew Stern, Reuters 23 Oct 09;
CHICAGO, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The biggest conservation organization in the world says it needs help saving the world's diminishing storehouse of unspoiled nature.
The president and chief executive of the Washington-based Nature Conservancy wants to enlist countries and corporations to preserve rain forests and other ecosystems by unleashing market forces and by opening eyes.
The Conservancy has quietly moved over the past half-century to protect some 119 million acres (48 million hectares) of land around the world -- an area slightly larger than California.
It has also protected 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of rivers and 100 marine sanctuaries, but wants to do more and to raise its profile, said its leader, Mark Tercek.
Most recently, the organization purchased a large swath of Montana that is prime grizzly bear habitat and helped engineer a compromise among loggers, native peoples and conservationists over a huge forest along Canada's West Coast.
"We have this vision or mission to basically save the world," Tercek said.
"As good as we are, and as proud as we are of all our projects, if you add them all up it doesn't seem to really move the needle. So we now have to achieve conservation on an even greater scale. How do we do that?"
CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Tercek said he can show policymakers how conservation and economic development can co-exist.
He is lobbying the U.S. Congress and participants in upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen to give developed countries like the United States incentives to pay billions of dollars to developing nations. They, in turn, would preserve rain forests and other ecosystems that are carbon stores.
By preventing deforestation that would release carbon as greenhouse gases, developed nations can offset their own emissions and buy time to reduce carbon footprints through energy conservation and developing renewable energy.
Tercek insisted the money transfer works, pointing to projects in Indonesia, Bolivia and Brazil as examples.
The Conservancy has also worked with energy giants like BP in Wyoming to conserve unspoiled land in exchange for drilling rights.
Tercek, 52, is a Goldman Sachs veteran picked to lead the Nature Conservancy 15 months ago. He institutionalized the Wall Street firm's environmental conscience by melding the interests of clients to environmental forces.
The organization he now heads has $1.3 billion in assets and a $450 million annual budget, which he said gives it more resources than any other conservation group.
The recession cut into the Conservancy's endowment and curbed contributions from its many wealthy donors, so it trimmed its 4,000-person staff by 400 this year.
"We want to do projects like these forest carbon projects that can be enormous and harness market power," Tercek said.
"The other thing we want to do is we need to have a broader understanding of why conservation matters. Why it's in everyone's economic interest. Why it's not a luxury good for rich people, but why poor people should care about it." (Editing by Chris Wilson)
