1A GREAT RIVERS PARTNERSHIP THE FIRST FIVE YEARS

GREAT RIVERS PARTNERSHIPTHE FIRST FIVE YEARS

Great Rivers Partnership801 West Main StreetPeoria, IL 61606309-495-7897

The Great Rivers Partnership is an ambitious effort to conserve and restore the world’s great river systems for the benefit of the people and species that depend upon them for life.

nature.org/greatrivers

FRONT COVER PHOTO (L TO R) A resident of Yunnan Province, China, walks in the rugged hills that surround the Yangtze River © Ami Vitale; Yangtze River © Brian Richter/TNC; Emiquon Preserve © Byron Jorjorian

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Great Rivers PartnershipRealizing Our Vision for Healthy, Sustainable Rivers

In 2005, the vision of people around the world coming together to better understand and manage large, working rivers for people and nature brought Caterpillar Inc. and The Nature Conservancy together to create the Great Rivers Partnership (GRP) with a generous grant from the Caterpillar Foundation.

I’m delighted to report since then, the idea of fundamentally changing the way great rivers are managed has taken hold at the Conservancy and among many partner organizations working to sustain great rivers around the world.

In these pages, you will see how the GRP has brought together scientists and resource managers on the Mississippi, Yangtze, Paraguay-Paraná and other great rivers to advance conservation and sustainable development by investing in innovative strategies, sharing their results and exchanging knowledge through scientific research and lessons learned.

Examples include the completion of a conservation blueprint for the Upper Yangtze River, paving the way for a new system of protected areas in China. A water producer project launched in one Brazilian watershed in 2007, where downstream landowners pay upstream “producers” for clean water, is now being replicated in other parts of the country. Policy initiatives, which GRP helped craft and advance through the political process, are providing millions of dollars for ecosystem restoration in the Mississippi River basin.

Companies like Monsanto, Cargill, Ingram Barge, Pioneer, IBM, Wells Fargo, Alliant Energy and YSI have joined Caterpillar in supporting the GRP’s effort to find innovative ways to conserve and restore great rivers while also considering the economic needs of people and nations.

In the coming years, we will build on these achievements to further advance ecologically and economically sustainable river basin management on the Mississippi and other great rivers. We invite you to join us on this exciting, dynamic and truly historic journey to conserve those mighty waterways that sustain us all.

Michael ReuterExecutive Director, Great Rivers Partnership

“ We’re proud that Caterpillar’s invest-

ment to establish the Great Rivers

Partnership has enabled freshwater

projects on three major river systems

to collaborate across boundaries,

leveraging best practices, enhancing

outcomes and making long-term

sustainability possible.”

-Douglas R. Oberhelman, Chairman and CEO, Caterpillar Inc.

Michael Reuter on Yangtze River, China © TNC

INSET PHOTO Douglas R. Oberhelman © Marc Esser/Caterpillar Inc. BACKGROUND PHOTO Atibaina Reservoir, near the town of Nazare Paulista, Brazil. The reservoir is part of Brazil’s Cantareira system (the largest public water supply system in Latin America) which provides 50 percent of São Paulo’s drinking water. © Scott Warren

54 GREAT RIVERS PARTNERSHIP THE FIRST FIVE YEARS

Through the Great Rivers Partnership, The Nature Conservancy is bringing together scientists, corporations, public agencies, the agriculture and navigation industries, conservation organizations

and many other interested individuals and groups to advance solutions for managing, protecting and restoring the health of these mighty waterways at the heart of their nations.

Working together, we not only increase our capacity but align resources and focus them on the most effective strategies for reversing habitat loss, restoring functional flood-plains and coastal wetlands and reducing nutrient and sediment loss.

By building partnerships among great rivers

worldwide, the knowledge we gain in one place can be utilized by river managers facing similar issues half a world away.

One Giant Step for River RestorationSoon after the Great Rivers Partnership was launched in 2005, a huge opportunity to help restore the health of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers presented

itself. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was undertaking a study on navigation efficiency and ecosystem restoration along the two rivers. The Conservancy shared its science-based approach to conservation planning and restoration as well as its experience on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers with the Army Corps, helping to strengthen the ecosystem restoration portion of the study.

The Conservancy worked with the Army Corps, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, state agencies and other partners, and eventually the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP) was developed. More than $1.7 billion was designated for ecosystem restoration and about $2.2 billion for navigation improvements when Congress autho-rized the Water Resources Development Act in November 2007.

While the authorization of NESP was a huge victory, it was just the first step. Since 2007, the Great Rivers Partnership has joined with the commer-cial navigation industry, the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association, Audubon and others to urge Congress to appropriate funds to implement NESP.

As we wait for NESP appropriations, the Conservancy continues to work with partners to keep the Environmental Management Program (EMP),

PartnershipPARTNERSHIP Great rivers like the Mississippi, Yangtze and Paraguay-Paraná are dynamic, complex systems that provide water, food, energy, jobs and recreation to people, as well as habitat for native plants and wildlife. The issues facing these great rivers are as complex as the rivers themselves and cannot be solved by one entity or even multiple entities working in isolation.

BACKGROUND PHOTO Barges on the Mississippi River near La Crosse, Wisconsin © Robert J. Hurt

INSET PHOTO Building islands in the Mississippi River © Mark Godfrey/TNC

76 GREAT RIVERS PARTNERSHIP THE FIRST FIVE YEARS

Partnership

a currently authorized and appropriated ecosystem restoration program, viable and vigorous. This 25-year-old program has enabled river managers and scientists to restore more than 93,000 acres of riverine and floodplain habitat on the Illinois and Upper Mississippi rivers. Recent GRP victories include getting language changed in the current appro-priations budget to maintain the ability to plan and construct new ecosystem resto-ration projects under the EMP authority.

NESP will give the Conservancy and its partners the ability to continue the types of projects EMP is currently funding. It will also increase our ability to restore floodplain connectivity, improve river water levels for the benefit of riverine habitat and provide fish passage, while ensuring continued economic prosperity for the nation.

U.S.-China Exchanges Share River ExpertiseBeing able to assess the health of a river is key to its restoration whether it’s the Mississippi River in the United States or the Yangtze River in China. During the past three years, the Great Rivers Partnership has helped build relation-ships between river managers on these two great waterways that hold immense promise for improving their protection and management.

Building on a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2007 by The Nature Conservancy and the Changjiang Water Resources Commission (the managing authority for water resource use and protection on the Yangtze), the GRP supported three exchanges—one on the Mississippi and two on the Yangtze— in 2008 and 2009. The exchanges focused on further developing the aquatic monitoring systems on the Yangtze.

Yangtze River fish populations have declined because of overharvesting for food and the hydropower dams that are powering China’s burgeoning economy. The GRP helped influence the Chinese government to implement fishing bans and other measures to help fish recover; they recently initiated a feasibility study for extending the annual duration of the bans.

During the exchanges, researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin, shared the techniques and tools they use to monitor fish populations on the Mississippi River to help their Chinese counterparts begin to assess whether or not these measures are helping fish rebound on the Yangtze.

Upon returning home, $1.9 million was secured from the Chinese government to support fisheries research for ecosystem restoration on the Yangtze and other major Chinese rivers. The funding supports the implementation of ideas gained during the exchanges and includes USGS as a technical collaborator, helping ensure continued collaboration, learning and sharing across these great rivers.

Focusing on Agricultural SustainabilityIn 2006, The Nature Conservancy, through the Great Rivers Partnership, joined an alliance of growers, agribusi-nesses, food companies and conservation organizations working together to identify and support sustainable agricul-tural practices that meet the world’s growing food needs, reduce impacts on the environment and improve the well-being of growers and their communities.

Called Field To Market: The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, the alliance is developing a system for measuring and tracking the impact of agriculture on soil, water, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity and land use. When completed, it will serve as a road map for tracking progress on agricultural sustainability and identifying ways to improve it.

“It’s the broadest based coalition today in the agriculture and food sectors focused on how all the players in agricul-ture can make a difference in improving sustainability,” said Michael Doane, vice president of sustainable agriculture policy for Monsanto Company, one of the founding members of Field to Market.

“Having this opportunity for a deep collaboration with all parts of the agriculture and food sectors and with organizations like The Nature Conservancy makes it possible to break down barriers so we can get to solutions,” Doane added.

Top phoTo Corn crop in the Mackinaw River watershed, Illinois © iStockphoto.com/Jason Titzer

INSET phoTo Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Water Quality Component Specialist Shawn Giblin (black shirt) explains the sampling process to visiting Chinese scientists during a water quality training session on the Mississippi River. © Erika Nortemann/TNC

The alliance has already published metrics for land, water and energy use; soil loss and climate impact. They are working on metrics for water quality and biodiversity and are in the early stages of thinking about socioeconomic metrics that relate to quality of life for growers. They have incorporated the completed metrics into a Fieldprint Calculator, which is still in the testing phase, that growers will use to assess their sustainability in the areas of land and energy use, soil loss, irrigation and climate impact.

“You’ll never manage what you don’t measure,” Doane commented. “By developing an easy way for growers to measure their impact, we’re creating a whole new management paradigm.”

“ You’ll never manage what you don’t measure. By developing an easy way for growers to measure their impact, we’re creating a whole new management paradigm.” -Michael Doane, vice president of sustainable agriculture policy

for Monsanto Company.

above The Nature Conservancy is working with farmers and other landowners in the Mississippi River basin to improve water quality. © Mark Godfrey/TNC

98 GREAT RIVERS PARTNERSHIP THE FIRST FIVE YEARS

Every great river starts as a trickle of water somewhere upstream. In the same way, a small idea can grow and eventually have a major impact. The Great Rivers Partnership has taken this approach to heart, providing the scientific, technical and financial support needed to test innovative approaches to water management on one river or tributary stream and then replicating what works in other places to advance a systems approach to conservation.

BACKGROUND PHOTO Mississippi River Valley © Mark Godfrey/TNC

INSET PHOTO Becky Carvin and Faith Fitzpatrick, with the U.S. Geological Survey, measure water volume flowing through recently restored streams in the Pecatonica River watershed in southwest Wisconsin. © Mark Godfrey/TNC

PartnershipIMPACT

The Water Producer program in Brazil is a remarkable example of how a good idea can grow to become a powerful tool for conservation and restoration.

The GRP is also making an impact by strategically investing in research and on-the-ground projects that can be used to influence the policies and procedures governing the management of great rivers. For generations, rivers like the Mississippi and Yangtze have been managed to meet human food, water and transportation needs without consider-ing the impacts on the health of the rivers themselves. In part, this has been due to a lack of understanding about the diver-sity and abundance of life that rivers hold and the myriad of services they perform.

By investing in science, testing new ideas at project sites and using the results to inform policy, the GRP is using its resources strategically to maximize its impact on integrated and sustainable management of great river systems for the benefit of both human and natural communities.

Creating Water Funds for People and NatureAround the world, deforestation, pollu-tion, climate change and other environmental pressures are shrinking the planet’s freshwater supply. In 2007, the Great Rivers Partnership helped launch an innovative program that is now being used in Brazil and other parts of South America to help protect fresh water for people and nature.

The Water Producer program was first implemented in Brazil by the National Water Agency in the Piracicaba-Capivari-Jundiaí watershed in southeast Brazil with support from the GRP. It finan-cially compensates rural landowners who help improve water quality and quantity by preserving and restoring forests and grasslands along streams and by imple-menting best management practices on cropland and cattle ranches.

Since the inception of the first Water Producer project, six more have been started in other watersheds in Brazil. They are helping improve the health of rivers that supply drinking water to some

10 GREAT RIVERS PARTNERSHIP THE FIRST FIVE YEARS 11

Impact

of Brazil’s major cities, including Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo, by reducing soil erosion and nutrient runoff from agricultural lands.

The most recent project, launched in Brazil’s Cerrado region in June 2009, is protecting water quality in the Pipiripau River, a headwater stream of the Paraná River. More than 180,000 of Brasilia’s 2.6 million residents depend on the Pipiripau for water.

This Water Producer project is also helping to conserve and restore Brazil’s forests and grasslands. In the Cerrado region, for example, more than half of the savanna has been converted for ranching and agriculture. During the next five years, 3,280 acres of grassland will be restored and another 10,665

acres will be conserved as part of the Pipiripau Water Producer project.

Today, similar water funds and water producer initiatives are also being used in watersheds in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to protect forests and grasslands and help provide clean, safe drinking water for millions of people.

Putting the “Flood” Back into FloodplainsIn 2007, The Nature Conservancy launched a major effort to restore 7,100 acres of former floodplain, prairie and upland forest at Emiquon along the Illinois River. Today, hundreds of acres of prairie and wetland have been planted, water is returning to former lakebeds and hundreds of thousands of waterfowl, including 20 duck species, are using the area during migration.

The Great Rivers Partnership has been a vital partner in advancing the stunning rebirth of this important wetland. The GRP helped position Emiquon as an important proof-of-concept project for the larger Mississippi River system, helping secure key capital investments by partners such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and advancing a policy agenda necessary to enable the restoration. The GRP also secured the donation of water quality monitoring equipment from the YSI Foundation and other resources needed to support the restoration work.

In turn, through the GRP, Emiquon scientists are sharing lessons learned with other great rivers in the U.S. and beyond. In 2008, the Conservancy’s Louisiana program began working with partners to restore and reconnect 16,000 acres of

former floodplain known as Mollicy Farms to the Ouachita River. Emiquon scientists shared their restoration design and monitoring plans, including the use of computer models and key ecological indicators to measure results, which helped jump-start the work at Mollicy. The GRP helped secure funding and resources to undertake the Mollicy restoration.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has included Emiquon among the group of sites around the U.S. where it sends its planning associates to learn about resto-ration. Emiquon holds an annual science symposium and has hosted scientists and practitioners from China, Brazil and other countries who are working on river conservation and floodplain restoration.

The dynamic interplay between a river and its floodplain is critical to the health of both and to human well-being. Through innovation and communica-tion, the GRP is helping to put the “flood” back into floodplains on the Mississippi and other great rivers around the world.

A Blueprint for Conservation in ChinaAs part of the Great Rivers Partnership, The Nature Conservancy embarked on an ambitious initiative in 2005 to help shape the management and protection of China’s Yangtze River.

The first phase of the project was an assessment of the Upper Yangtze River Basin, which was eventually expanded to cover the entire basin. The 445-

million-acre area includes parts of 11 provinces and is home to more than 400 million people who depend on the Yangtze and its tributaries for life-sustaining water. The methodology for this assessment was modeled after a pioneering assessment of the Upper Mississippi River, which the Conservancy completed in 2003.

In 2005, the Conservancy also began partnering with the Chinese government, major hydropower companies and other nonprofit organizations to develop sustainable alternatives to the design and operation of planned dams. Today, Conservancy scientists are assessing water flows needed to sustain river ecosystems and working with designers and operators to locate, construct and operate dams in ways that protect the river and its fish populations.

The assessment on the Upper Yangtze paved the way for one of the Conservancy’s most ambitious assess-ment and planning efforts to date. Working with China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Conservancy is creating a conservation “blueprint” that is helping to set conser-vation priorities throughout China. The blueprint is providing the Chinese government with the information it needs to redesign and expand China’s nature reserve system to ensure it is effectively conserving biodiversity.

In 2008, when a massive earthquake devastated parts of Sichuan Province, killing nearly 70,000 people and taking a heavy toll in one of China’s richest areas of plant and animal life, the China blueprint helped the government quickly create a science-grounded recovery plan and helped partners secure funding for restoration in the quake region.

LEFT To RighT Pelicans at Emiquon Preserve, Illinois © Deborah Berman; Floodplain restoration at Mollicy Farms on Ouachita River, Louisiana © Erika Nortemann/TNC

Nature Conservancy staff examine a watershed map in Yunnan Province in China. © Ron Geatz/TNC

The Great Rivers Partnership has been a vital partner in advancing the stunning rebirth of the wetlands at Emiquon on the Illinois River.

1312 GREAT RIVERS PARTNERSHIP THE FIRST FIVE YEARS 13

BACKGROUND PHOTO First bend on China’s Yangtze River © Dou Weiyang

TOP INSET PHOTO © Lloyd DeGrane

INSET PHOTO U.S. Geological Survey scientists Yao Yin and Brian Ickes sample the Datong River, a tributary of the Upper Yellow River, in China. © Xiaoming Sun/TNC

PartnershipLEVERAGE Great rivers around the world, while different in important ways, face many of the same challenges. Dams and levees have altered water flow and isolated the rivers from their floodplain. Excessive amounts of nutrients and sediment alter water quality and destroy habitat for native plants and animals. Overharvesting has led to declines in fish and shellfish populations.

Through the Great Rivers Partnership, The Nature Conservancy is initiating new and highlighting existing innovative, system-wide restoration and manage-

ment strategies in places like the Yangtze, Paraguay-Paraná and Mississippi rivers and sharing results with scientists and river managers on the Magdalena River in Colombia and in other places worldwide.

By connecting scien-tists, river managers and decision-makers within a watershed to each other and to others influencing management of great rivers around the world, the Great

Rivers Partnership is helping provide solutions to some of the biggest chal-lenges facing our precious waterways.

Collaborating on a Plan for the MagdalenaLike the Mississippi, the Magdalena River in Colombia is a working river, an important contributor to the country’s economy and its rich natural resource

base. More than 3 million tons of goods are transported along the river each year, and 28 million people live in the river basin. Unlike the Mississippi, the Magdalena’s power is just beginning to be tapped.

In April 2008, the Great Rivers Partnership and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hosted an exchange with Cormagdalena, the agency tasked with management of the Magdalena River, to help them think about how to balance the economic, cultural and conservation interests of the river for all Colombians.

During the week-long visit to St. Louis and New Orleans, staff and scientists from Cormagadalena, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center dis-cussed coastal land loss, sediment management issues, navigation needs and flood risk management.

The trip culminated with an agreement to work together to develop a plan that identifies and outlines best practices and strategies for the sustainable management of the Magdalena River. It would draw on technology, engineering, restoration and conservation expertise from the top river managers across the United States.

“The central idea behind the Great Rivers

Partnership is stunning in its simplicity:

As different as great rivers around the

world might be in some ways, the prob-

lems they face reduce to much the same

thing. By sharing information and expe-

rience across rivers in many countries,

we can accelerate their conservation.

It seems obvious now, but it didn’t when

we started the Great Rivers Partnership

five years ago.” - Brenda Shapiro, Trustee,

The Nature Conservancy’s Great Rivers

Partnership and Illinois Chapter

14 GREAT RIVERS PARTNERSHIP THE FIRST FIVE YEARS

Cormagdalena is currently working on a plan to improve navigation in the Canal del Dique, which connects the Magdalena River to Cartagena Bay. Over the years, the canal has become laden with sediment from lands upstream in the watershed, impacting navigation opera-tions. Improving the canal will help expand trade between Colombia and other parts of the world.

The U.S. Army Corps will help Cormagdalena assess the feasibility and possible impacts of the planned improvements on navigation and sediment movement in the canal. The Conservancy, with help from GRP scientists, will conduct an assessment of the environmental impacts of the proposed changes on the river, adjacent wetlands and near-shore regions of Cartagena Bay and the Caribbean Sea.

Partnering with Agriculture on SustainabilityThe Mississippi River basin is at the heart of our nation’s agricultural economy. Working with local producers and partners, The Nature Conservancy is testing innovative ways to keep valuable nutrients and soil on the land, improve water quality in rivers and increase grower productivity.

A generous contribution to the Great Rivers Partnership from Monsanto Company in 2007 provided a major boost to conservation efforts in agricul-tural landscapes. This support helped to advance system-wide conservation approaches in four important GRP “proof-of-concept” projects: Minnesota’s Root River, Wisconsin’s Pecatonica River, the Boone River in Iowa and the Mackinaw River in Illinois.

In the Mackinaw, Conservancy staff are working with partners to test the impact that reduced tillage, stream buffers and

man-made wetlands are having on water quality, hydrology and aquatic life. They are also determining the impact of non-traditional approaches, such as constructed wetlands, on water quality. On the Root, staff is working with growers and partners to slow runoff, remove nitrates and improve water quality. On the Pecatonica, the Conservancy and its partners are targeting conservation efforts on those fields with the greatest potential for contributing nutrients to streams rather than ran-domly across the entire subwatershed.

At all of these projects, through the GRP, the Conservancy is monitoring the effectiveness of conservation practices; sharing results locally, regionally and nationwide; and providing information to USDA so these practices are adopted and funded through Farm Bill conservation programs for greater implementation and system-wide impacts.

In June 2010, the Conservancy’s agricul-tural watershed work with partners in seven states received $12.7 million in grants from the USDA’s new Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative (MRBI). The GRP helped shape this important initiative, which takes a watershed approach to improving the health of the Mississippi River basin.

Collaboration between the GRP and Conservancy staff in 12 Mississippi River states to ensure we are building partner-ships, taking a targeted approach to improving water quality and monitoring outcomes ensures more conservation is implemented and targeted to places for maximum impact. The cumulative result is a healthier Mississippi River.

Leverage

TOP PHOTO Alberto Galeras propels a wooden canoe through a lagoon on the lower Magdalena River in Colombia. © Bridget Besaw

INSET PHOTO LTC Murray Starkel, Deputy District Commander for the Army Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans District, talks about Hurricane Katrina as Conservancy staff and representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers and Cormagdalena tour the devastated 9th Ward in New Orleans. © Erika Nortemann/TNC

Milestones: A Brief History of the Great Rivers Partnership’s First Five YearsFive years ago, Caterpillar Inc. and The Nature Conservancy created the Great Rivers Partnership to advance conservation and sustainable development of great rivers around the world. Following are a few milestones from our first five years.

2005The Great Rivers Partnership (GRP) launches with a $12 million grant from Caterpillar Inc., through its Foundation.

The GRP holds first staff exchange with Brazil for the Paraguay-Paraná river system; goal is to begin identifying conservation priorities using Upper Mississippi River freshwater classification system as a model.

Chinese government asks the Conservancy to lead study to identify lands and waters critical to conserving biodiversity.

Grasslands exchange strategy to decrease pollution in the Paraguay River is developed and implementation begins in Mato Grasso State.

The GRP begins partnership with barge transportation industry on the Mississippi River leading to joint advocacy efforts in support of navigation improvement and ecosystem restoration funding in Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2007.

20061,200 rural properties are mapped in the Upper Paraguay River watershed to gather information about existing natural vegetative cover in support of the grasslands exchange strategy.

The first Yangtze River Forum in Wuhan, China, brings people from around the world together to discuss environmental protection and resources and socioeconomic development in the Yangtze basin.

Mississippi River © Jim Brekke

Brazilian Cerrado © Scott Warren

Resident of Yunnan Province, China © Ami Vitale

The GRP Brazil team and WWF help inform Brazil’s national freshwater management plan, the first of its kind in South America.

With GRP support, the Conservancy hosts a delegation of Chinese officials to study hydropower initiatives on the Savannah and Columbia rivers, including ways to minimize environmental impacts.

Congress authorizes 2007 Water Resources Development Act, which includes more than $1.7 billion for ecosystem restoration along navigable portions of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers.

The GRP joins with potential partners from the Africa Wildlife Foundation to explore areas for collaboration including the possible expansion of the GRP to the Zambezi River.

The Conservancy, Brazil’s National Water Agency (ANA) and the Environmental Secretary of São Paulo State partner to reforest one of São Paulo’s most important watersheds – the Piracicaba, which supplies water to 8.8 million people.

The China Blueprint project launches with staff and financial support from the GRP. The project will identify a network of priority conservation areas that capture the full range of biodiversity in China.

Through participation in Field to Market, the Conservancy launches partnership with agriculture to support sustainable agriculture practices.

Barges on the Mississippi River near La Crosse, Wisconsin © Robert J. Hurt

China blueprint team © Ron Geatz/TNC

Cynthia and Frederick AckerAlliant Energy FoundationAltria Group Inc. American Forests Anderson-Tully CompanyDale E. BirkenholzBobolink Foundation Albert & Elaine Borchard Foundation Bound to Stay Bound Books David Byron & Vicki SmithCargill Inc.Roy J. Carver Charitable TrustCaterpillar FoundationClarissa & Henry ChandlerYun Fat ChowCrystal Light

Cummins-Allison Corporation Delta Air LinesDow Chemical Company FoundationDuPont Enerchina Holdings Ltd. Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation Jamee & Marshall FieldGeneral Mills Inc.Grabe Family Foundation Richard K. GreenAlice & Lowell GrievesHamill Family Foundation Shun Hing Education & Charity Fund IBM CorporationIngram Barge Company Invest Gain Ltd.

Rex & Nelle Jackson Foundation Connie & Dennis KellerWilliam T. Kemper Foundation Kerry Holdings Inc. RJ Kose Fund Rita KressThe McKnight Foundation The Estate of Newell & Ann MeyerModestus Bauer Foundation Monsanto CompanyThe Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Northern Trust Corporation Charitable

Trust Daniel F. & Ada L. Rice Foundation Searle Family Trust Brenda & Earl Shapiro

Anton SzabadosTNH Family Foundation United Capital Investment

Group Ltd. Walton Family FoundationWells Fargo FoundationNancy Hamill WinterKwong Yu WongT.Y. Wong Foundation YSI Foundation

Thank You to Our Great Rivers Partnership Donors

The Great Rivers Partnership would like to thank the individuals, foundations and corporations who collectively contributed more than $60 million to our work since 2005. Our success is possible because of their generous support.Included in the list below are donors who contributed $10,000 or more to the Great Rivers Partnership and our proof-of-concept project areas in the Mississippi River, Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific regions.

“What makes the Great Rivers Partnership so valuable is its international scope and the leverage and impact it has provided to the Conservancy’s freshwater work. In just five years, GRP donors have helped initiate and catalyze programs and freshwater conser-vation strategies that endure today, like the conservation blueprint in China and the Water Fund program in Brazil. And on the Mississippi River, the GRP is bringing part-ners from all sectors of society together to craft and implement a vision and plan for a healthier, more sustainable Mississippi River.”

- Mark Tercek, President and CEO, The Nature ConservancyMark Tercek © Mark Godfrey/TNC

2007The Conservancy launches a two-year partnership with IBM to develop an interactive, online tool to help improve decision-making by water management agencies on large river systems.

The GRP, WWF and the Changjiang Water Resources Commission co-host the second Yangtze River Forum in Changsha, China, strengthening relationships with partners including the Zambezi River Authority and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Africa’s Zambezi River is designated as fourth GRP focal river.

Landmark floodplain restoration begins at Emiquon Preserve in Illinois, the premiere demonstration area for the Conservancy’s work on the Illinois River and within the Mississippi River system.

Executive Director of the Piracicaba-Capivari-Jundiaí (PCJ) Watershed Committee announces $260,000 in funding for forest conservation and reforestation in the PCJ watershed. The first Water Fund project in Brazil, it will compensate landowners for the ecological benefits their forested lands provide.

500,000 tree seedlings are planted in the PCJ watershed to protect 50 freshwater springs in and around Extrema, one of Brazil’s largest cities.

The Conservancy and Changjiang Water Resources Commission sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work together on sustainable management of the Yangtze River.

2008Kentucky scientists from the Conservancy’s Obion Creek-Bayou de Chien floodplain project visit Illinois’ Emiquon Preserve to learn about the Conservancy’s floodplain protection and restoration work and establish a “sister project” relationship.

Through the GRP, the Conservancy and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers host a delegation from Cormagdalena on the Mississippi River to help advance sustainable management of Colombia’s Magdalena River. A draft Memorandum of Understanding between the Conservancy and Cormagdalena is developed in 2009.

Emiquon wetlands © Byron Jorjorian

Seedling nursery © Flávio Hermínio Carvalho/ANA (Agência National de Águas, Brazil)

Magdalena River © Bridget Besaw

The Conservancy facilitates a scientific exchange between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Yangtze Valley Water Environmental Monitoring Center to inform the development of a long-term, compre-hensive monitoring program for the Yangtze River.

The GRP expands the “sister project” relationship between Emiquon in Illinois and Obion Creek-Bayou de Chien in Kentucky to include Mollicy Farms on the Ouachita River in Louisiana.

2009Mollicy Farms on the Ouachita River in Louisiana floods in advance of the Conservancy’s plan to breech portions of a 17-mile-long levee. Planned levee breaches take place in September 2010.

The GRP and U.S. Geological Survey host two exchanges—one each on the Mississippi and Yangtze rivers—to help develop aquatic monitoring systems on the Yangtze. As a result, the Chinese government provides $1.9 million to incorporate USGS monitoring protocols into the Yangtze program and explore expansion of the monitoring effort to the Yellow and Amur rivers.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service launches its Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative (MRBI) to improve water quality and overall health of the Mississippi River basin. MRBI will provide $320 million over four years to priority watersheds in 12 states contributing the greatest amount of excess nutrients to the river and downstream to the Gulf of Mexico.

2010$12.7 million of MRBI funding is awarded to priority watersheds in seven states where the Conservancy is a project lead or partner.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the GRP host America’s Inner Coast Summit in St. Louis. Together with findings from a Meridian Institute study requested by the GRP, the summit reveals that diverse partners want to work together to manage the Mississippi River more holistically as one system, marking new opportunities for the GRP to take a leadership role.

China exchange © Erika Nortemann/TNC

Water monitoring equipment © Jennifer Filipiak/TNC

Milestones: A Brief History of the Great Rivers Partnership’s First Five Years (continued)