A force for nature: why The Nature Conservancy’s Jennifer Morris remains optimistic about the planet’s future

Establishing what Morris calls these “big hairy audacious goals” was the first thing she did when she joined The Nature Conservancy in 2020, as a way to align 6,000 staff across 80 countries “as different parts on one big ship all rowing in the same direction”.

The goals are ambitious by design: reducing or storing three gigatons of carbon dioxide annually; protecting 100 million people most vulnerable to climate risk; conserving 4 billion hectares of marine habitat, 650 million hectares of land, over 1 million km of river systems and 30 million hectares of lakes and wetlands; and supporting 45 million people whose livelihoods depend on healthy oceans, freshwater and land.

“I think it’s important to think really, really big,” says Morris. “Sometimes in the conservation space, there’s a tendency to focus on hyperlocal and that’s great, but at the end of the day, we are one of the largest environmental organisations in the world, and I want us to be the best; and in being the best, we have to fight some of the biggest challenges in the world, like global biodiversity loss and climate change.”

As The Nature Conservancy marks 75 years and more than 960 million hectares already conserved, and we pass the halfway point to 2030, how is Morris’s mission going? “Of our six goals, we are on track to meet or exceed four of them right now,” she says, referencing a data management system that allows for continuous measuring and monitoring of goals, and subsequent reallocation of resources where necessary. This results-driven, performance-based approach reflects how Morris runs The Nature Conservancy. “I try to work with my team in a [manner that allows us to] see really clear metrics and results in a way where a businessperson could say: they’re really serious about results; they’re holding themselves accountable; they’re using science and metrics to drive for high performance. And I think that’s something that non-profits often don’t do as good a job at and something that I really want to be part of my legacy.”

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Yet one of the biggest challenges often faced by non-profit organisations, especially ones like The Nature Conservancy, that work in conservation and extensively with communities, is that not only is so much outside of their control, but progress takes time. It’s something that Morris, who calls herself an “impatient optimist”, has also had to reckon with.

But technology is increasingly supporting the mission. “Tech enables us to do things faster and better and for much less money,” says Morris, “especially in the marine space when you’re talking about vast areas. Being able to use technology that can help us monitor more effectively … it’s a game changer. We’re really excited about some of the things we’re doing, especially in Asia-Pacific.”

The Nature Conservancy has been working on projects in Asia for 40 years. Its latest is a bet on start-ups, in partnership with venture platform Newlab. The Global Ocean Innovation Challenge (GOIC) launched in January, inviting entrepreneurs from around the world to present technologies to address some of the most pressing challenges in ocean conservation. The winning solutions were announced in May in Singapore and deployed as pilots in June in Southeast Asia, a place where the ocean sustains food and livelihoods for more than 700 million people. More broadly, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for 89 per cent of the world’s aquaculture, yet less than 30 per cent of its ocean is formally protected, monitored or managed.

The winning projects include India-founded Blurgs.AI, which translates complex maritime data for improved ocean management and will monitor industrial fishing fleets operating across the Pacific; US start-up Havoc, which operates a fleet of autonomous surface vessels for continuous monitoring of marine protected areas; and Portugal’s BlueOasis—styled blueOASIS—which deploys solar-powered acoustic listening stations to detect marine activity in real time, improving visibility in remote environments. Havoc and BlueOasis pilots are deployed in Indonesia’s Savu Sea, one of the world’s most important marine biodiversity hotspots and a critical migration corridor for sea mammals including whales, sharks and tuna.

Havoc’s CEO Paul Lwin points to a persistent gap in Indonesia’s marine protected area network—“illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing remains a crisis that existing monitoring tools have not been able to address at scale”—while Guilherme Beleza Vaz, founder and CEO of BlueOasis, sees the pilot as a template that could scale to hundreds of protected areas across the region and beyond. “That’s the mission: making ocean protection not just possible, but inevitable, and for all,” he says.

Yet for all the promise of emerging technology, innovation alone is not enough. Scaling these solutions will require capital—and Asia has a critical role to play in financing and accelerating conservation technologies.

Morris says, “A lot of our supporters have made their money from investing in tech, so the ability to use those skills and knowledge of the sector for conservation objectives is tremendous. We’re seeing huge interest in this region.” Increasingly, that interest is taking the form of blended finance—bringing together philanthropic, public and private capital, including from the Singapore government, to unlock larger pools of investment for conservation. The Nature Conservancy’s own NatureVest initiative has already helped mobilise more than US$4.3 billion into companies and funds creating positive environmental impact.

Morris believes that “the urgency in Asia is felt perhaps more than in other regions”, and this may be one reason the continent is embracing new approaches. The region is contending with disproportionately rising temperatures, dense urban populations and growing pressure on natural ecosystems.

Leading an organisation tackling challenges on this scale inevitably carries weight. Yet Morris says purpose keeps her grounded. “Working in a place like The Nature Conservancy, every day I have passion and purpose. I wake up every day knowing that we are doing everything we can to change the trajectory that our planet is on.” Yet she admits that heading up a body that is tackling challenges measured over decades can feel relentless. “Sometimes I feel like we’re sprinting a marathon.”

Despite that, she remains optimistic. Emerging technologies are allowing The Nature Conservancy to accelerate and scale its impact, but what gives Morris the greatest confidence is the next generation. “I see an optimism, a willingness to help, a desire to roll up their sleeves and dig in and work with organisations like The Nature Conservancy—and the desire, in Asia-Pacific, to lead a life of impact. That gives me a lot of optimism that people want to actually invest in making the planet better.”

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