The Caterpillar Foundation of Caterpillar Inc. has donated $12 million to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) – the largest corporate gift TNC has received to date, to guide protection of the world’s vanishing freshwater supply and transform the way large working river systems are preserved and protected. The Great Rivers Partnership will create integrated models for sustaining great river systems of the world.
“Freshwater systems in the 21st century will be one of the most important issues for conservation organizations and governments to address. As the world’s population grows, people will need continued access to freshwater to thrive,” said Steve McCormick, the Conservancy’s president and chief executive officer.
“Business leaders must work together to achieve lasting results that allow commerce and natural places to thrive side-by-side,” said Caterpillar Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens.
A central component of this new project, the Great Rivers Center for Conservation and Learning, will be at the heart of transforming how these magnificent and critical systems are protected. As the intellectual cornerstone for the Great Rivers Partnership, the center will identify cross-cutting issues and activities that threaten large rivers globally; it will develop and support project work that will inform and demonstrate ways to effectively conserve these large rivers; and it will seek ways to engage and influence the business, political and community leaders who shape the future of these great rivers by functioning as a learning and sharing clearinghouse, and helping to provide access to some of the best scientific information available worldwide.
The gift will support conservation of large river systems on three continents: the Upper Mississippi River Basin in the United States, home to about 30 million people; the Paraguay-Parana River system in Brazil, supporting nearly 17 million people as it flows through five countries; and the Upper Yangtze River in China, with the Yangtze River being one of four great Asian rivers that provide freshwater to 500 million people. A Fortune 100 company, Caterpillar manufactures construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines.
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