The Nature Conservancy’s Position on Hunting and Fishing https://blog.nature.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Hunt1.pdfThe Nature Conservancy does not take a general position for or against hunting and fishing. Many of our
members hunt and fish and many others strongly oppose either hunting or fishing or both. The Conservancy
has never opposed either, when they are carried out within applicable state and federal laws.
The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that
represent the diversity of life on earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. While we do
not encourage hunting or fishing on the majority of conservation sites that we own or manage, there are
several specific situations in which we might allow one or both:
• The most common reason for allowing hunting on Conservancy preserves is to maintain or
restore the integrity of biological communities. At many of our sites, populations of non-native
animals like feral hogs and of native animals like deer can grow well beyond the ability of the
natural communities to withstand their effects. In those situations, we sometimes employ
carefully managed hunting as a tool to reduce populations in order to reduce the damage that
they cause, allowing natural communities to recover their full vigor and diversity.
• We are increasingly aware that we cannot carry out our work in a vacuum -- we must be
sensitive to the human communities in and around the sites at which we choose to work. In
many cultures, subsistence hunting and fishing are both an historical fact and a practical
necessity. In others, they have been integral to the fabric of family and community life for
generations. In these places, we sometimes allow the continuation of traditional hunting and
fishing practices after we have acquired new properties in order to avoid disrupting the local
economy or stimulating unnecessary anger and resentment among our new neighbors. In these
situations, we only allow hunting or fishing after we are confident that they will not threaten the
conservation targets that we are trying to protect. We continue to monitor these sites so that we
can be certain that the long-term effects on the local biota are benign.
• Occasionally, those who give or sell property or conservation rights to the Conservancy make
the gift or sale contingent on the continued availability of the property to them for hunting or
fishing. Again, we only allow hunting or fishing after we are confident that they will not
threaten the conservation targets that we are trying to protect and we continue to monitor these
sites so that we can be certain that the long-term effects on the local biota are benign.
• Finally, The Conservancy has acquired millions of acres of conservation land for subsequent
transfer to state, federal, and local governments. In many cases, these transfers help to create or
extend wildlife and game management areas that are required by statute to provide recreational
opportunities, including hunting and fishing, to local citizens.
In all cases, Conservancy programs that allow hunting or fishing do so only after carefully evaluating the
biological and sociological effects of that choice, usually involving thorough site planning processes
designed to focus on the protection of the plants, animals and natural communities. We are not aware of
even a single situation in which allowing hunting or fishing on a TNC preserve has increased threats to our
conservation targets.