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| Corporate Description |
Conservation
Force is a 501(a)(3) non-profit charitable public foundation.
It is an international organization with partners worldwide. Its
exempt purposes are wildlife conservation, education, research and
serving the greater public good. It serves the public through
support and development of conservation infrastructure locally,
nationally and internationally. It is a comprehensive organization
that functions as a worldwide communications center and information
source, monitor, advisory think tank and pro-active advocate for its
exempt conservation purposes. The aim is to aid, support and
complement other organizations (a consortium of approximately 100
organizations) rather than compete, thus to be a positive addition
to the overall capacity of the conservation community. It supports
and is supported by a federation of partnering organizations from
the International Foundation for the Conservation of Wildlife (IGF)
in Paris to the Dallas Ecological Foundation in Texas.
Read full Corporate Profile
| History |
Conservation Force
is the culmination of four decades of pro bono
wildlife conservation advocacy. It began as minor pro bono legal services in
the early 1970s. By the middle 1980s, a large part of the law firm's
activities, staff and resources were devoted to conservation advocacy. By
the late 1980s and early 1990s, the pro bono advocacy became the dominate
activity of the law firm. In the early 1990s, the firm began achieving an
unprecedented number of victories for traditional conservation interests
around the world. During that period, the law firm became an
around-the-clock international communication headquarters and advocacy "war
room" for governmental and sportsmen's conservation organizations. Most
partner, clerk and staff time was devoted to the pro
bono protection and
expansion of conservation through hunting. The firm provided uniquely
pro-active services that led to a great number of conservation and
bio-political successes. Many successes were wholly the work of the firm and
others were carefully crafted collaborative initiatives orchestrated from
the firm. The Elephant Initiative, Mozambique Leopard Initiative, and
importation of horn from darted black rhino are examples of those almost
totally performed by the firm. The firm legally processed an unprecedented
number of successful test trophy import permits at no charge to the public
because they were engines for conservation. Other achievements like the
reform of the Marine Mammal Protection Act to permit the importation of
polar bear trophies, though led by the law firm, exemplified a collaborative
effort of many individuals and organizations seldom found in the
conservation community.
The activities were led by John J. Jackson, III, a lifetime sportsman with
four decades of service and leadership in hunting and fishing conservation
organizations. He has been a member or officer in more than one hundred
conservation organizations and the president of six, including Safari Club
International. John states that even his first act as an attorney was the
pro bono incorporation of a non-profit sport fishing organization. The blend
of experience as an organizational leader, array of experience afield in the
natural world, advocacy training and skills as a "AA" rated attorney,
coupled with his infatuation with wildlife, wild places and the sporting way
of life have motivated and enabled him to serve the public and to succeed
again and again.
In the middle 1990s, the law firm was dissolved because the pro bono
services to the conservation community had taken its toll on the firm. It
was then that John, Chrissie and the network of volunteers and organizations
formalized Conservation Force as a non-profit (501 (c)(3)), public
charitable foundation to continue in perpetuity and expand the services and
support that the principals had been providing to the hunting-conservation
community. The firm, for more than a decade, had been providing services to
many organizations that did not have the "in house" professional capacity,
staff, and expertise necessary to fulfill their conservation missions.
The new Foundation was dedicated to continuing to provide those support
services. The firm had been a worldwide communication center and "war room."
The new Foundation was designed to continue to provide that network and
service. The firm had serviced and supported many organizations while
liberally sharing the credit for successes for the common good. The new
Foundation is designed to complement, not compete, to support and to share
the credit with all partnering organizations. Some initiatives take many
years, e.g., the Elephant lawsuit to establish the importation of elephant
hunting trophies took seven years and was handled wholly by the firm; the
opposition to the "endangered listing" of the African Elephant took four
years; the opposition to the Endangered Species Act listing of the Baja
Desert Sheep took five years; the Cheetah Initiative is now 16 years old,
etc. Conservation Force will continue to completion important long term
programs regardless of their duration or difficulty.
The law firm's pro bono activities led to the first reform of international
and diplomatic policy toward range nation conservation programs under the
Endangered Species Act and CITES in a quarter of a century (CITES Trophy and
Quota Resolutions at COP9.) It unearthed the inadequacy of the Endangered
Species Act provisions for foreign mammals which are most listed mammals.
Today, the Foundation continues to lead in the development and
implementation of that ESA reform. From its inception, the firm had provided
professional skills and resources beyond the "in house" capacity of the
existing organizations to tackle the big and tough jobs. Today the
Foundation continues that as it has in the past. The firm was a professional
structure to get the job done without political divisiveness. Today, the
Foundation maintains its independence and is organized to service the
conservation community directly, efficiently and effectively. The firm had
linked and worked with many hundreds of organizations and individuals. Today
the Foundation serves as a consortium or collaborative federation of nearly
all of those same organizations and more.