The Conservation Alliance harnesses the power of businesses from a wide range of industries to protect outdoor spaces and wild places. We drive a proactive agenda to protect nature utilizing strategic advocacy and grantmaking, leveraging business influence, and building deep partnerships with grassroots organizations and local communities to collectively deliver high impact conservation outcomes, protecting North America’s outdoor places and wild spaces for everyone. Since 1989, we’ve helped protect over 124 million acres and 4,964 river miles, remove or halt 43 dams, purchase 22 climbing areas, and designate five marine reserves and one national marine sanctuary.
In 2025 and 2026, we are investing additional advocacy resources in six priority campaigns. We have chosen these campaigns utilizing a variety of lenses, including where our member base is strong, how much we have previously invested in these campaigns, and the likelihood that our business voice can successfully move the needle and help our on-the-ground partners meet their goals. Many of these priority campaigns may also have a bipartisan opportunity to retain or gain protections. We announce our Advocacy Priority Campaigns once a year. In collaboration with our grantees, we work to identify land and water conservation opportunities that are urgent, vital, and need national attention.
Defending Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument / Antiquities Act
What’s at stake?
The Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument (BNIK) was designated by former President Biden in 2023. The campaign was driven by tribal efforts by the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition, and was widely supported by the local community. This monument permanently protected nearly one million acres of public land adjacent to and surrounding the iconic Grand Canyon National Park, and also protects sacred homelands for surrounding tribes as well as the critical Colorado River watershed. BNIK ensures exceptional outdoor recreation opportunities in the area.
In 2025, this national monument – alongside many others across the American west – came under scrutiny by the Department of the Interior. In addition to the monument, a 20-year ban on new mining claims near the Grand Canyon put into place in 2012 is also likely threatened by the new administration. The Baaj and Grand Canyon landscapes are significant drivers of Arizona’s recreation economy, and rolling back protections threatens the wellbeing of community members, small businesses reliant on the health of this ecosystem, and the country’s $1.2 trillion outdoor economy.
What’s the solution?
TCA will work with its members, partners on the ground, and local Tribes to ensure that protections for Baaj and the 20-year mining ban are retained throughout the second Trump Administration. By elevating the importance of the landscape to the economy, communities, and tribes, TCA and its partners will build energy and amplify work being done at the coalition level to ensure that the BNIK National Monument continues to exist, that the administration takes the right next steps forward for monument management planning, and that the voices of local communities are at the table in the case that any major decisions about the landscape are made. Finally, if relevant, TCA will support any legislative opportunities for permanent protections across the region, as well.
Who is The Conservation Alliance’s partner?
Grand Canyon Trust’s mission is to safeguard the wonders of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau, while supporting the rights of its Native peoples. The Conservation Alliance has been a proud supporter of The Grand Canyon Trust since 2010, with many awarded grants helping to permanently protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining.