Mission

The Liz Claiborne & Art Ortenberg Foundation is dedicated to the survival of wildlife and wildlands and to the vitality of human communities with which they are inextricably linked.

The Foundation is a private body devoted to the conservation of nature and the amelioration of human distress.  It seeks to redress the breakdown in the processes linking nature and humanity. The Foundation concerns itself particularly with matters of species extinction, habitat destruction and fragmentation, and resource depletion.  It favors solutions that directly benefit local communities and serve as exemplars for saving species and wildlands. It recognizes the imperative to reconcile nature preservation with human needs and aspirations.

The Foundation devotes a substantial portion of its funding to the protection of key wildlife landscapes in developing countries.  The Foundation is also actively involved in the northern Rocky Mountain region, particularly in Montana, southern Canada and neighboring states.  

It emphasizes a community-based approach to conservation. It supports the use of good science to inform sound public policies, and the importance of collaboration and cooperation in crafting solutions to habitat protection, responsible natural resource management and sustainable economies.