Enhancing Biodiversity

Partnering to Preserve Biodiversity

Enhancing and preserving biodiversity is an important part of 3M’s value of respecting our social and physical environment. 3M has been working to preserve biodiversity both on our property and through our support of organizations like The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International.

The Nature Conservancy

Over the last few years, the 3M Foundation has donated over $10 million to The Nature Conservancy to preserve habitat in the United States, Brazil, Mexico and China. This partnership is helping to safeguard critical habitat and preserve biodiversity.

At the same time, the partnership involves 3M employees and local residents. Besides increasing the amount of protected lands for migration zones, endangered wildlife and rare indigenous plants, we are working together to improve visitor access and learning opportunities for the public. In Brazil, a 3M grant is helping The Nature Conservancy preserve the concentration of unique and threatened plants and animals that can only be found in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. Less than 8 percent of the original tropical forest remains today. The purchase of nearly 2,400 acres will manage and protect it from further clearing and environmental threats.

In 2007, 3M donated $1.5 million to the Nature Conservancy’s Forest Legacy Partnership in Minnesota. The Partnership’s objectives are to:

• Maintain and protect sustainable forest industry-related jobs in logging, forest product manufacturing, equipment, and related businesses, as well as jobs in other sectors tied to forest resources including tourism, hospitality, and recreation.

• Preserve and protect some of Minnesota's most biologically diverse and important wildlife habitat, and preserve water quality, including the Upper Mississippi River Basin.

• Maintain and protect the availability of significant recreational opportunities in these forests, including skiing, hunting, fishing, hiking, and biking that contribute greatly to our quality of life and support industries connected to the natural environment.

Conservation International

3M worked with Conservation International to protect endangered wildlife and restore the threatened forests in China through a $3 million multi-year grant from the 3M Foundation. The Mountains of Southwest China are home to rare giant pandas, red pandas, golden monkeys, elusive snow leopards, more than 685 bird species, as well as 12,000 species of trees and plants. Many of these species are unique to this area that has become one of the world’s most critically threatened biodiversity hotspots.

In 2007, 3M built upon these efforts by extending its donation and giving an additional $1 million to Conservation International’s Forest Restoration for Climate, Community, and Biodiversity project. The extension will address water issues resulting from forest degradation. Conservation International will:

• Assess and prioritize freshwater biodiversity conservation sites and develop a strategic plan for designing payments for watershed services that would lead to a series of pilot demonstration projects to be implemented as a second phase after this initial bridge grant;

• Design a financing mechanism to support Freshwater conservation - The China Freshwater Fund; and

• Raise the awareness of Chinese and international audiences of the importance of presenting China's biodiversity.