Learn about this citizen network to save America’s last wild places.
Now more than ever, North and South America's last wildlands and rarest wildlife are under threat from large scale logging, mining and industrialization. NRDC's BioGems Initiative harnesses the power of citizen activism to help ensure that these natural treasures -- our BioGems -- remain wild for the sake of a sustainable planet and all future generations.
Preserving Wildlands
NRDC specially selects wild places across the Americas that face an imminent threat of destruction: pristine coastlines that could become industrial ports; ancient forests that could be stripped of trees; and unspoiled wildlife habitats that could be sacrificed to oil and gas drilling. Our imperiled BioGems are irreplaceable remnants of wilderness that provide sanctuary for endangered wildlife, curb global warming, preserve biodiversity and enrich the lives of local people.
Protecting Wildlife
All BioGems sustain rare and extraordinary wildlife, from threatened polar bears to endangered gray whales. The BioGems Initiative highlights critical species under threat within and across BioGems.
Taking Action
The BioGems Initiative, launched in 2001, employs the power of citizen activism to take on and prevail over corporate interests. Each year, we mobilize hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens to take action via the Internet in defense of these irreplaceable natural treasures and the wildlife that depends on them for survival. Our online activists -- known as BioGems Defenders -- bring overwhelming pressure to bear on governments and companies bent on industrializing the world's last wild places.
Our most high-profile activists also help shine a spotlight on issues they care deeply about -- Leonardo DiCaprio on polar bears, James Taylor on whales, and Robert Redford on the American West, to name a few.
Winning Battles
Together, BioGems Defenders and our local partners on the ground have scored dozens of historic victories for the environment, proving that individuals can be a powerful force for conservation.
When the last unspoiled breeding ground of the Pacific gray whale at Laguna San Ignacio, Mexico, was threatened by Mitsubishi's plans for a massive salt factory, BioGems Defenders helped block the disastrous scheme through a worldwide display of citizen protest.
Later, a powerful outcry from BioGems Defenders won government protection for more than 5 million acres of the Great Bear Rainforest, a vast coastal temperate rainforest that is home to grizzly bears, wolves, and the Spirit Bear -- a rare white-colored black bear.
And our activists helped turn back the Bush administration's repeated attempts to open Greater Yellowstone, Utah's Redrock Wilderness and Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to destructive oil and gas drilling.
Join Us
Since 2001, the ranks of BioGems Defenders have grown to 500,000 people, who have sent more than 10 million messages on behalf of our hemisphere's wildlands. But there's much more that needs to be done. We hope you will join this citizens' force for nature, and help preserve our wilderness legacy by taking action today.
