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.