Creating a new legacy of justice for forests & communities
A Pathway to Just Solutions
Justice Conservation advances forest preservation and conservation solutions. The work takes place in environmental justice communities and territories in the Southeast. Industrial logging and climate change hit these communities and tribes hard.
Together, we’re building lasting, region-wide change.
What is Justice Conservation?
People need equitable access to nature and community-led solutions. We must change harmful economic, political, and social systems. We can’t keep allowing racial, environmental, and ecosystem injustices. No more outdated extractive economic models. Instead, we’re advancing forest conservation and preservation policies.
This drives public and private investments in Southern US forest protection.
Areas of work
Justice Conversation consists of four areas of work. We use the Justice Conservation Model as our guide.
- Conservation projects: Community and Tribal Forests
- Justice Conservation Fund
- Conservation Policy
- Conservation Research
How Justice Conservation got started
Justice Conservation began with a hard truth. We’ve witnessed the steady destruction of forests and wetlands. Profit is more important than people and the planet. Industry clearcuts trees. They convert forests to monocrops. They drain wetlands. And it’s communities who suffer the consequences.
We’ve encountered solutions that promised progress. Instead, they delivered more harm. Expanding timber markets. Incentives for commercial timber management. Federal and state support for industrial logging. Greenwashing. All in the name of economic stability. They were supposed to be necessary and good. But we saw the pattern. They created a false sense of hope. And they did not work.
Then a new vision took shape. A vision where we center communities and ecosystems. Where we respect, value, and protect them. Where we measure the true value of forests in lives saved.
Healthy ecosystems = healthy communities
Forest protection isn’t lofty idealism. It’s practical, urgent, and life-sustaining.
Forests shield communities from extreme weather. They reduce pollution. They absorb carbon faster than many technologies. Forests provide natural stress relief and foster biodiversity. Protecting forests is essential to building real climate resilience.
Unprotected forests can be logged, sold, or developed. Single-crop tree farms, AI data centers, or highways can replace them. These losses reach far beyond trees. We all lose.
Justice Conservation is a response and a solution
Justice Conservation creates climate resilience. It’s a way to transform harmful economic, political, and social systems. To address racial, environmental, and ecosystem injustices. Justice Conservation is a commitment to protect what sustains us. To build a future grounded in justice.