Other Environmental Themes

The Nature Conservancy

The mission of the Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.

Marine Conservation Strategy: Permit Banking One of The Conservancy’s marine conservation strategies is called permit banking. Under the program, The Conservancy and their partners acquired groundfish permits from willing sellers and made them available to fishermen subject to specific conditions on how they are used. The three overarching goals of the permit banking strategy are to:

  1. Support collaborative research with fishermen on developing more selective gear and improving our understanding the relationship between key habitats and ecological processes.
  2. Provide incentives for transition to more sustainable fishing practices.
  3. Help secure long-term access to the fishery for smaller boats and traditional fishing ports in Maine and around the Gulf.

To learn more, please visit: www.nature.org/maine