112 



funds") to attract additional investment from non-federal sectors ("challenge funds"). The total 

 "grant" amount for a project is typically the combined total of matching and challenge funds. 



Although its mandate requires a match of at least a one-to-one ratio, the Foundation has been 

 extraordinarily successful in its leveraging ability over the past seven years. It has stretched 

 $28 million in federal dollars into over $90 million for partnerships in 785 conservation projects: an 

 overall ratio of one federal dollar to two non-federal dollars. 



The Foundation awards matching funds in five areas of conservation initiatives: North 

 American wetlands partnership, neotropical migratory bird conservation, fisheries conservation and 

 management, conservation education, and wildlife and habitat improvement. It has used its challenge 

 grant matching funds to jump-start a number of high priority national programs, including: Partners 

 in Flight, a conservation program for neotropical migrant bird species-those that nest in the U.S. and 

 Canada and winter in Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean; the U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service's Gap Analysis Program (GAP), which uses GIS mapping techniques to provide land 

 managers with a tool to help maintain biodiversity on a landscape level within the context of patterns 

 of land ownership; and "Bring Back the Natives," a restoration program for native flora and fauna in 

 selected Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service riparian areas. 



Realizing that others on the panel today will go into more detail about the Foundation and its 

 programs, I will focus my comments on two areas which will demonstrate why The Nature 

 Conservancy so strongly supports the Foundation and why we are so pleased to testify today on behalf 

 of its reauthorization. First, I will briefly describe a number of the cooperative efforts on behalf of 

 biodiversity in which the Foundation played a key role, and then highlight four projects in more 

 detail. Second, I will briefly mention three areas that the Conservancy believes the Committee should 

 examine as it reviews the Foundation's authorizing legislation. 



Foundation and Conservancy Partnership Projects 



Since 1988, the Conservancy and the Foundation have jointly worked on 43 projects in twenty 

 states throughout the U.S. and in Mexico. To date, $3.71 million in federal (matching) funds have 

 produced $7.54 million in challenge funds, for a total of $11,456 million invested in on-the-ground 

 conservation-a truly impressive record. The following projects illustrate the Foundation's importance 

 to efforts on behalf of biodiversity protection and ecosystem management. 



o In the ACE Basin of South Carolina , Foundation contributions in 1989-1991 totalling 



$161,000 supported land acquisitions, funded a full-time coordinator for a private landowner 

 initiative, and allowed for a biological inventory of Mary's Island and Cheeha-Combahee. 



o In Louisiana , the Foundation has been instrumental in many projects. Foundation funding of 



$100,510 purchased 752 acres of bottomland hardwoods along the Red River, Bayou Bodcau 

 Wetlands , for the keystone of a new refuge. In 1991, $200,000 in matching funds helped 

 acquire 7,000 acres of coastal wetlands in the Bavou Penchant Basin , and $6,000 provided for 

 a TNC coordinator for the Partners in Flight program. Just approved this year are matching 

 funds to launch a Gulf Coast Bird Observatory and a field station on Little Pecan Island, as 

 part of the Gulf Coast Conservation Initiative (see next bullet). 



