Working with all stewards of the environment to accelerate conservation and community prosperity.
Enduring Earth is an ambitious collaboration that works with all stewards of the environment to accelerate conservation worldwide. We seek to protect and conserve our planet’s ocean, lands, and freshwater, and secure long-term financing for conservation, economic diversification, and community prosperity. This is built on a commitment to uphold the rights of people and create opportunities for sustainable growth.
Nature underpins every aspect of life on Earth, but the planet’s biodiversity is declining rapidly. A 2019 report by the U.N. found up to 1 million plant and animal species are facing the threat of extinction, and at the same time, climate change is devastating lives, communities, and economies.
The Enduring Earth initiative has emerged as a beacon of hope in response to these challenges. Central to our approach is a model known as project finance for permanence (PFP) – also referred to as a PFP, which secures long-term investment in conservation initiatives by tying sustained funding to tangible, measurable goals encompassing both social and environmental benefits. Projects are collaboratively designed, locally-led, nationally supported, sustainably funded, and highly accountable, with the goal to inhibit nature’s decline and produce robust conservation outcomes at a global scale.
Looking ahead, by 2030 Enduring Earth aims to protect 600 million hectares in 20 PFPs worldwide. This kind of durable and large-scale conservation, with a commitment to uphold the rights of communities and create sustainable economic growth, will benefit lives and livelihoods, reduce and offset carbon emissions, and secure biodiversity.
Our Commitment
Nature
Durably protect and conserve lands, freshwater, and ocean
Community
Work in partnership with all stewards of the environment
Climate
Build resilience to a changing climate
Our Goal
Enduring Earth seeks to work with all stewards of the environment to protect over half a billion hectares of lands, ocean, and freshwater by 2030. By conserving these critical ecosystems, we will support nations in their efforts to secure durable conservation, boost community prosperity, and achieve global agreements such as the 2030 Biodiversity Framework, the Paris Agreement, and the fulfillment of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
Prior to the launch of Enduring Earth, the founding partners had worked with five countries to conserve 87 million hectares of lands, ocean, and freshwater using the PFP model. And in just two years we have doubled our impact, helping to facilitate the agreement of three new PFPs in Colombia, Mongolia, and Canada – securing 89 million hectares in durable funding for long-term conservation and community development.
Today, Enduring Earth is working with more than 100 partners, governments, Indigenous peoples, local communities, on the design and implementation of 14 PFP projects in 12 countries to durably protect more than 390 million hectares of ocean, lands, and freshwater – an area greater than the size of India.
This decade offers our greatest opportunity to address the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. As we find ourselves at this global tipping point for people and nature, together we can accelerate and sustain durable conservation at a pace and scale never seen before.
Enduring Earth represents one of the biggest opportunities to catalyze large-scale conservation rapidly and efficiently to meet the challenges facing the planet today and in the future.
A PFP is a financial model that brings together governments, Indigenous peoples and local communities, funders, and other partners to secure long-term conservation, full and sustained funding, and community benefits. Through this approach, protected places stay protected because they are collaboratively designed, locally-led, nationally supported, sustainably funded, and highly accountable. The strong structure of a PFP agreement provides confidence that each project will be fully funded, well-managed, and positioned for long-term success.
The PFP model fully funds large-scale conservation projects upfront and secures major commitments to conservation. Our approach recognizes that economic development and resilient communities are instrumental for conservation permanence. Enduring Earth is committed to uphold the rights of people and create opportunities for sustainable growth; working together, we have what it takes to create a better and more prosperous future.
For Durable Conservation
Project Finance for Permanence is a tool to enable governments and local communities, in partnership with funders and NGOs, to secure long-term management and financing for networks of conservation areas in the form of a deal with a single closing agreement.
Enduring Earth is a collaboration of The Nature Conservancy, The Pew Charitable Trusts, World Wildlife Fund and ZOMALAB, the family office of Ben and Lucy Ana Walton.