Environmental Defense Fund
The Walton Family Foundation supports Environmental Defense Fund's broad commitment to "finding the ways that work" through nonpartisan, cost-effective programs that win lasting political, economic and social support. In particular, the Foundation provides financial support to Environmental Defense Fund's Oceans Program, which uses practical, science-based and market-based solutions to harmonize human activities with the health of the oceans.
The Ocean Program's top objectives are:
- the recovery and long-term viability of U.S. fisheries through strong economic incentives for conservation;
- the restoration of declining wetlands, including the Louisiana Delta;
- increasing the abundance and diversity of marine life by expanding networks of protected ocean areas and
- engaging businesses, ocean industries and the public to support the world's oceans through more practical and effective laws, policies and business practices.
Environmental Defense Fund is working with fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico to develop solutions to overfishing that make sense both biologically and economically.
One of the Program's key recent achievements includes leading the effort to win broad industry and community support for the Gulf of Mexico's first catch share program to save red snapper and improve fishermen's bottom-line. In addition, Environmental Defense Fund was the principal author of the North Carolina Coastal Protection Act that now protects spawning grounds and nurseries vital to the South Atlantic. Environmental Defense Fund also participated in a 10-year effort that established the largest national network of marine protected areas around Cuba. Finally, after many years of effort to protect the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), Environmental Defense Fund enjoyed a great shared victory with other groups when President George W. Bush established the world's largest marine protected area in 2006 to safeguard this remote, biologically rich string of islands and submerged lands. Covering 84 million acres, the proposed national ocean monument is almost 40 times larger than Yellowstone National Park and is larger than Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
