Missouri Action and Impact Report - Spring 2024

TNC’s collaboration with Enterprise Mobility Foundation is accelerating freshwater conservation

Smart ideas guide conservation. Support for those ideas determines how far they can go. That’s true whether The Nature Conservancy is working in the wide Mississippi River floodplains or the wild rivers of Southeast Europe. With the right mix of know-how, talent, time and financial support, small e orts that would help a few people can grow into huge projects that change lives across entire regions. TNC is constantly in search of partners and supporters who can energize those projects and take them further. Since 2017, the St. Louis-based Enterprise Mobility Foundation has

been a key philanthropic partner through its Routes & Roots® Healthy Rivers Project. The foundation’s support helps TNC protect and restore freshwater resources to benefit native species and local people who depend on them worldwide. TNC recognizes the importance of businesses in creating a sustainable future and works with a variety of companies to conserve the lands and waters on which life depends. Mutual concerns about the health of rivers, freshwater ecosystems and communities brought the Enterprise Mobility Foundation and TNC together. The foundation initially pledged $30 million to TNC’s water

work. After the success of the first five years, the foundation renewed that support for a total of $60 million. The support has allowed TNC to expand its e orts at a critical time. On the ground, Routes & Roots has propelled a diverse suite of projects, including a rainwater-collection system to irrigate a community farm in urban St. Louis and Indigenous-led conservation e orts in the Canadian Boreal Forest. It has also boosted a pioneering tree-planting and wetland restoration program designed to help with flooding, capture carbon and improve water quality across the Mississippi River Basin.

THIS PAGE The Krupa River in the Balkans region of Southeast Europe, also known as the “blue heart of Europe.” © Ciril Jazbec

14 MISSOURI : ACTION AND IMPACT

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