The Enviva Forest Conservation Fund, a $5 million, 10-year program sponsored by Enviva and administered by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, is designed to protect tens of thousands of acres of sensitive bottomland forests in the Virginia-North Carolina coastal plain. The Enviva Forest Conservation Fund will award matching-fund grants to nonprofit organizations to permanently protect ecologically sensitive areas and preserve working forests.
In addition to the sizable grant program, the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund is underpinned by two bottomland forest stewardship pillars that expand Enviva’s commitment to protecting the region’s forests and environmentally sensitive areas:
These low-lying, marshy areas offer a variety of environmental benefits and contain some of the most unique plant and wildlife communities.
A $5 million, 10-year program sponsored by Enviva and administered by the Endowment, designed to protect sensitive bottomland forests.
Check here for updates about the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund and our efforts to permanently protect ecologically sensitive areas and conserve working forests.
Enviva Inc. is the world’s largest producer of wood pellets, a renewable and sustainable energy source used to generate electricity and heat. Enviva owns and operates ten plants with a combined production capacity of approximately 6.2 million metric tons per year. The company exports its pellets primarily to power plants in the UK, Europe and Japan that previously were fueled by coal, enabling them to reduce their carbon footprint by about 80 percent. Enviva makes its pellets using sustainable practices that protect Southern forests, employs about 600 people and supports many other businesses in the rural South, where jobs and economic opportunity are sometimes scarce.
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities is a not-for-profit corporation established in 2006 at the request of the governments of the United States and Canada. The Endowment works collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities.
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“The coastal forests of Virginia are a precious natural resource, and the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund will play an important role in protecting and conserving them. Programs such as the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund help families and other landowners keep these forests as forests for generations to come. Both our environment and our communities benefit when private industry develops and supports these types of conservation efforts.”
“Enviva is one of the fastest-growing companies in the wood pellet industry. It turns byproducts of sawtimber harvests into renewable fuel that is in great demand around the world. By creating this Forest Conservation Fund, Enviva is ensuring that North Carolina’s bottomland forests will be sustained and protected for generations to come.”
“Ensuring that working forests are sound habitats for a wide range of bird species includes maintaining diversity within individual forest stands and at the landscape level. Enviva’s plan to identify and protect specific wetland forest types, such as Atlantic White Cedar, and to continue to enhance management of working forests, is a great step toward this goal for the Coastal Plain of Virginia and North Carolina.”
“I applaud the Endowment and Enviva for this innovative and positive agreement to ensure conservation and management of our critical forested wetland habitats. This agreement is the model of how corporate America can and should work to truly define sustainability for the future. Enviva’s commitment to protect diminishing hardwoods, cedars, pocosins and bays will help ensure a healthy future for both important habitats and forest product supply.”
“Increasingly, conservation successes will be defined by the convergence of business and the environment. The partnership of the U. S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and Enviva is a great example of how the innovation of business can accelerate the achievement of conservation on the ground. The enhanced management of family-owned forests, the permanent protection of the most sensitive areas, and the clear signal that healthy markets for forest products translates into forests being kept as forests rather than being converted to shopping centers, all are great outcomes of this strong partnership.”
“I commend Enviva for their new initiative to conserve bottomland hardwood forests in North Carolina. This project is a great example of private enterprise leading conservation efforts across our state.”
“The hardwood forests of the Southeast have been actively harvested for centuries. Unfortunately, all-too-often harvesting was done by ‘tak’n the best and leav’n the rest’. What’s often needed to restore those forest to resiliency and to help keep the forests healthy and productive are markets for the low-value trees left behind. The Enviva/Endowment plan is to harvest and allow for natural regeneration on operable sites while protecting stands on fragile soils in order to accomplish both economic and ecological objectives.”
“The raw materials that supply the wide range of forest products – from paper to lumber and more – are heavily dependent upon stewardship by our nation’s family forest owners. Just paying the annual taxes, insurance and maintenance on those lands can be a challenge. To have a for-profit corporation commit to helping fund long-term forest conservation efforts to help these landowners defray part of these costs and keep their forests as forests benefits us all.”
“An enduring commitment to sustainable forest management and a diversity of strong markets for wood products helped forest owners and managers increase the volume of growing trees in our country by 50 percent since the 1950s. Those forests provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat, recreation opportunities and economic benefits that improve the quality of life of millions of Americans. Conservation efforts are central to the business of sustainable forestry, helping to protect unique places and sensitive areas essential to the overall health and vitality of our forests. We applaud Enviva’s commitment to sustainable forestry and the people who make it possible.”
“Our agency believes in strong forest markets and the simultaneous conservation of declining forest types. We look forward to working closely with the partners to achieve effective landowner outreach, timely reforestation and active management that will strengthen forest health.”