The Wyss Campaign for Nature is a project of the left-of-center Wyss Foundation, a private foundation established by Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, an environmentalist activist and former CEO of the controversial medical device manufacturer Synthes. The campaign was launched by the Wyss Foundation in 2018 as a $1 billion effort to expand the amount of land held for conservation globally with a goal of having over 30 percent of the earth’s surface covered by conservation restrictions by 2030. Much of the campaign’s activity is conducted through The Nature Conservancy, among the largest environmentalist groups in the world. ^{1 2 3}

Background

The Wyss Campaign for Nature was formed in 2018 as a $1 billion project of the Wyss Foundation to partner with other environmental groups to launch projects and advocacy campaigns to facilitate increasing the amount of conserved land in the world, with the goal of having at least 30 percent of the earth’s surface placed under conservation restrictions by 2030. When launching the campaign, Hansjorg Wyss stated that “we need to do far more to support locally-led initiatives that conserve lands in the public trust, so that everyone has a chance to experience and explore the wonders of the outdoors.” ⁴

Initial partners of the group included The Nature Conservancy, Aves Argentinas, Fundación Flora y Fauna Argentina, the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust, and Fundatia Conservation Carpathia, which received an initial $48 million in funding commitments from the campaign to run projects aimed at protecting “approximately 10 million acres of land and 17,000 square kilometers of large, ecologically rich ocean areas across 13 countries.” ⁴

The Nature Conservancy received an initial $6.9 million in funding from the Wyss Campaign for Nature to expand its Blue Bonds for Conservation initiative in the Caribbean and to create a 200,000-acre “sustainable agriculture zone and protected area in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin.” ⁴

The National Geographic Society was also funded by the campaign to “document why ambitious global conservation action is needed to help alleviate the worst impacts of climate change and address the problems associated with the declining health of the natural world.” ⁴

The Wyss Foundation also announced that the campaign planned to triple the foundation’s annual investments in conservation outside of the United States. ^{4 5}

The campaign is directed by Brian O’Donnell, the former executive director of the Conservation Lands Foundation who also previously worked for Trout Unlimited. ⁶

Activity

The Wyss Campaign for Nature’s website stated in 2025 that the campaign had increased to a $1.5 billion effort from its initial commitment of $1 billion, while maintaining the same goal of placing 30 percent of the earth under conservation by 2030. The group’s “30×30” goal references the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, the Campaign for Nature, the Protect our Planet Challenge, and the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People. The group also noted that as of January 2023, 17 percent of land and 8.3 percent of oceans were protected by some sort of conservation measures. ⁷

The campaign also states that as of 2025, the campaign had already either distributed or committed over $1 billion in grant funds that the campaign claims led to the placement of more than 84 million acres of land and more than 1.7 million square kilometers of ocean under conservation. ^{8 7}

Projects in the United States have included a $5 million grant to Western Rivers Conservancy to acquire 24,860 acres of land that is now the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community Forest in northern California’s Klamath Mountains. The campaign also provided a $5,000,000 grant to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to acquire the Minam River Ranch property, a 15,500-acre property that was then deeded to the State of Oregon for inclusion in the Minam River Wildlife Area. In 2022, the campaign provided a $3 million grant to the Trust for Public Land to purchase the approximately 16,451-acre Pōhue Bay property in Hawaii for transfer to the National Park Service as an addition to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The campaign has facilitated dozens of other projects in dozens of countries, on all continents except Antarctica. ⁹

1. “Alumni.” Hansjörg Wyss, MBA 1965 – Alumni – Harvard Business School. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages/story-bulletin.aspx?num=2000.
2. “30×30: Protecting the Planet, One Place at a Time.” The Nature Conservancy Magazine. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://www.nature.org/en-us/magazine/magazine-articles/30×30-wyss-foundation-interview/
3. “Home.” Wyss Campaign for Nature. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://www.wysscampaign.org/
4. “Release: Wyss Foundation Launches $1 Billion Campaign to Help Conserve 30% of the Planet by 2030.” Wyss Foundation. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://www.wyssfoundation.org/news/release-wyss-foundation-launches-1-billion-campaign-to-help-conserve-30-of-the-planet-by-2030
5. Wyss Foundation Launches $1 Billion Campaign.” Wyss Foundation. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://www.wyssfoundation.org/news/release-wyss-foundation-launches-1-billion-campaign-to-help-conserve-30-of-the-planet-by-2030
6. “Goal.” Wyss Campaign for Nature. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://www.wysscampaign.org/goal
7. “Projects.” Wyss Campaign for Nature. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://www.wysscampaign.org/projects
8. “Blue Creek, United States.” Wyss Campaign for Nature. January 10, 2025. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://www.wysscampaign.org/project-list/2025/1/10/blue-creek-united-states
9.  “Phue Bay, Hawaii.” Wyss Campaign for Nature. October 17, 2024. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://www.wysscampaign.org/project-list/2024/10/17/phue-bay-hawaii