THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

Established 1951

35 countries

Regions:

North America

Latin America

Asia/Australia

Africa

Europe

THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

Science-based

Partnerships

Land protection: 50 million ha

River protection: 8,000 km

THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

Great Rivers

Painting by: Evelyn De Morgan. 1898.

“Their flavor was excellent – superior in fact, to that of

any fish I have ever known. They were of extraordinary

size – about as large as a Columbia River salmon –

generally from two to four feet in length.”

-- Col. John C. Freemont, describing Pyramid Lake

trout from his 1840s surveys of the Great Basin

Freemont wasn’t exaggerating

April 26th 1869 Reese River Reveille (Austin, NV) “…trout would teem in this brook were it not for the destructive practice of the settlers in the canyon in irrigating their lands…. It has already thinned the number of trout in the brook, and if persisted in will exhaust the stock…”

Remember the good ol’ days…?

Painting by: Evelyn De Morgan. 1898.

Curse Breaker #1:

Capture the imagination and connect people to nature…

“You are killing me, fish, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or more noble

thing than you, brother.” Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

Angling comprises many different cultures, which can all change…

Cultural value: quantity of catch

Cultural value: quality of experience

Painting by: Evelyn De Morgan. 1898.

Curse Breaker #2:

Build an economy that values nature…

Recreational angling by the numbers…

Scope Worldwide ~ 10% of adult population in developed nations (Cooke & Cowx 2004) Australia ~19.5% in Australia (Koehn & Todd 2012)

Economic Impacts Annual US expenditure $US 41.8 billion (US Fish & Wildlife 2011) 22 European countries $US 10 billion (Cowx 1998) In comparison, 2012 US commercial fishery exports were valued at $US 5.12 billion and imports at $16.7 billion… (NOAA 2012)

Sustainability…

Economic Social

Ecological

A tale of two rivers…

Soča River, Slovenia Neretva River, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Ecology depleted fishery

Economics economic hardship

Society resource exploitation

Ecology healthy fishery

Economics local prosperity

Society proper stewardship

Painting by: Evelyn De Morgan. 1898.

Curse Breaker #3:

Present viable alternative futures…

• Ogooue River, Gabon

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Conservation blueprints

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Installed capacity (GW) projected to approximately

double by 2050

These two scenarios provide the same level of energy development (67% of basin inventory), but Scenario 7 (right) maintains nearly twice as much connected channel network with 5% greater overall cost.

(CFE, CONABIO, TNC 2014)

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Offsets or compensation – Costa Rica (IDB, IFC, and Costa Rica)

Re-engineering a basin: Penobscot River (Maine, USA)

Re-engineering a basin: Penobscot River (Maine, USA)

The future of the Balkans…

• Capture the imagination

• Balkan region is a key area for freshwater

systems—a true “hot spot”

• TNC is happy to offer assistance

• Working in partnerships

• A CHANCE TO GET IT RIGHT THE FIRST

TIME!

Hvala, Faliminderet, Danke, Thank you!

Google: “The Nature Conservancy—the power of rivers”