Wildlands Philanthropy, Conservation, and the Role of Business.
Monday, October 20th, 2008I attended a Commonwealth Club event tonight entitled Wildlands Philanthropy about how individuals and - in some cases - corporations have a long history of helping to conserve the lands that make up our local, state, and national parks around the world. The main presentation was by Kristine Thompkins & Tom Butler, from Conservacion Patagonica and wildlandsphilanthropy.org respectively. After the talk I also had the privilege of also talking with Kim Elliman of the Open Spaces Institute (NYC) and Brad Meiklejohn of the Conservation Fund (Alaska).
I was curious about what business’ role in conservation could and should be. I didn’t get much of an answer besides they should give a lot more money to conserve land abroad and, especially, locally. But to fulfill corporations’ fiduciary duties they have to really make a case for spending money on conservation (vs. reinvesting in the business or funding the arts, for example). I didn’t hear much of a value proposition for businesses other than “corporations are usually grateful about conservation in retrospect.”
It was interesting that the one example of a big corporation taking major action for conservation was Goldman Sachs protecting a huge amount of land in Tierra del Fuego under Henry Paulson (back in happier times for Hank). But ultimately most of the corporate money that finds its way into conservation comes from executives who have made their fortune and want to give it to a worthy cause. In fact, because sustainability is so fashionable nowadays, the rich are starting to buy-up land for conservation just to “keep up with the Joneses”. It’s the new Leer Jet.
I also asked how concerned they were about falling attendance levels at natural parks - and what they were doing to address that (vs. just focusing on getting more land). They of course lamented about how much time young people spend in front of computers and how important it is to instill a love and wonder of nature into our children. One interesting thing the Conservation Fund is trying in Alaska is actually having computer terminals out in the wilderness so that kids don’t have to choose between open space and cyberspace - they can have both.
The last really interesting point I took away is that the current financial crisis is a huge opportunity for conservation. There is a ton of land for sale and the pressure from new housing development has almost entirely evaporated. They’ve just got to scrape together the money to make it happen. Start working on that value proposition.
