Momentum Conservation advances a justice-centered approach to the conservation movement by connecting and empowering Maine’s conservation organizations. Momentum Conservation began its life as an administrative network supporting land trust in southern Maine. Over the past 13 years, we have expanded our service area to include all of Maine. We now facilitate multiple programs designed to help organizations grow their capacity to pursue their own equity-centered conservation goals.

What We Do

  • Capacity Building: We build the capacity of people, organizations, and communities.
  • Grant Making: We provide resources, build awareness, and mobilize connections to help conservation organizations reach their goals.
  • Convening: We deepen relationships by building new networks across differences, strengthening justice in conservation movement in Maine. 

Why

“In service of connection to the land and justice for people, we advance the growth edge of the modern conservation movement.”

Since the beginning, our work has been driven by a desire to expand the definition of what is possible through conservation. To that end, we are dedicated to learning and growing along with the organizations that we serve. We have committed ourselves to becoming a voice for justice and equity in Maine’s conservation community. All we do is supported by a common vision: People Connected, Nature Restored, and Land Returned. 

Mission

To work collectively in Maine to create mutually beneficial relationships with the earth, communities, and people through the conservation movement.

Vision

Conserved, restored and stewarded lands provide climate resiliency, community health, justice and equity for generations.

Our relationship with the earth is primary in society, restoring sovereignty to the earth and Indigenous people, benefiting all.

Beliefs

These are the things we believe to be true about the world and our place in it.

  • We believe that the land and all that is on it and in it is important and essential to life. It is the thing on which, through which, and by which we come together and are fully human.
  • We believe our treatment of the land must be based in reciprocity, as it has a direct effect on public health, climate resiliency, justice and equity.
  • We believe that conservation organizations are more effective when they have access to technical assistance, shared resources, administrative support, and networking.
  • Modern conservation is rooted in colonialism and white supremacy, which erase the many ways to relate to nature while systematically preventing access to and dispossessing Indigenous, Black and communities of color of land.
  • Power needs to be shifted in conservation because it is exclusive, primarily of and for the white dominant culture without reflecting or attending to the needs of people who make up communities, especially those of marginalized identities.
  • Human actions are driving climate change. The conservation movement must play a role in response to this change by monitoring the change, making lands more resilient to change, and managing carbon capture.
  • Biodiversity is an essential measure of the health of the land and all life on it. The conservation movement must contribute to maintaining adequate biodiversity by conserving land, caring for the land using indigenous and modern management practices, and educating communities on the value of healthy, diverse ecosystems.
  • We believe all things are interconnected, and people can better understand the ripple effects of their actions and shift behavior through education and engagement.

Values

These are the ways of being in the world and with each other that guide our actions as an organization.

We commit and hold ourselves accountable to the following:

  • CONNECTION: to be aware of and rooted in our connection to nature and each other as the foundation of systemic change; and to be active in ensuring that those that are most often excluded are included.
  • HUMILITY: to listen and be open minded; be accountable; change our path based on new information; accept that we do not know it all; acknowledge and trust that some next steps will present themselves in time.
  • COURAGE: to tell the truth, to try new things, to make mistakes, to seek out and listen to voices that haven’t been listened to, to persevere when faced with challenges.
  • JUSTICE and EQUITY: to ensure our work is not perpetuating the biases and disparities that disproportionately burden communities of color, indigenous communities, people with physical and mental disabilities, and low-income communities with legacies of environmental damage and on-going harm; to work toward fixing inequitable systems, including the nonprofit sector and those that exist in our own organization. See our full statement of equity HERE.

These four work as a system – they are interconnected – multi-dimensional

Key Framework for the Future

  • Strengthen organizations: our technical services will add capacity and expertise where needed, along with resources and opportunities for continued learning.
  • Build a cohesive network of organizations: we will provide opportunities for networking and access to programs to engage and take action on a number of key issues. These opportunities will result in partnerships within the conservation sector, and between conservation and broader community issues including climate resiliency, justice and equity, and community health.
  • Be a catalyst and partner in transformational change for the conservation community: we will push the edges of what has always been and will lean into a conversation of what has not happened yet through partnership, commitment, and growth.