OUR STORY
Our Start
The Phoenix Conservancy was founded in late 2016 in Pullman, Washington, receiving official 501(c)(3) status from the IRS in early January 2017. The mission of the Phoenix Conservancy is to restore endangered ecosystems globally for the communities that depend on them and the conservation of biodiversity.
Our Focus
The focus on local communities is one of the most important components of what we do and informs our restoration decisions and project focus. We believe that solving community problems with conservation solutions will ensure the long-term sustainability of our programs. Additionally, we feel that through collaboration with other NGO’s, government agencies, research institutions, and local stakeholders we can leverage the strengths of each to grow funding opportunities and program capacity.
Our Projects
Since our founding, we have undertaken projects in four US states and two countries. Through these projects we have worked with local, state, and federal government entities, conservation districts, utility providers, indigenous organizations, school districts, and dozens of other organizations and partners. Our work falls into the broad categories of direct environmental restoration, education/outreach, and research.
Our Process
Collaborating with local communities is central to what we do and guides our restoration
decisions and project focus. We believe that solving community problems with conservation solutions ensures the sustainability of our programs.
Our restoration approach therefore combines science-backed and innovative ecosystem restoration practices with development of community centered economic opportunities tied directly to stewardship and restoration of endangered ecosystems.
Creating Projects that Last
We have successfully executed our approach on three different scales: Local, National, and Global. On each of these scales we evaluate endangered ecosystems based on the amount of remaining habitat, the severity of threats to that ecosystem, and the opportunities for ecosystem solutions to
regional problems. A restoration plan is then developed to recover the ecosystem while maximizing diverse, novel, and existing economic opportunities dependent on ecosystem stewardship and conservation, benefitting surrounding communities.
In doing so, The Phoenix Conservancy works to use ecosystem restoration to address the following issues at all three of our focal scales:
• Biodiversity loss
• Climate change and resulting insecurity, desertification, and erosion
• Poverty, malnutrition, poor quality of life, and loss of economic empowerment
