NatureServe Network Membership

Membership in NatureServe enhances local organizational effectiveness by:

  • Engaging with a community. Participating in our network offers multiple opportunities to engage with ecologists, botanists and zoologists that share your passion for gathering information and sharing knowledge about our natural world. Members receive discounts for NatureServe-sponsored conferences and trainings, and can join interest groups that collaborate on specific topics.
  • Increasing efficiency. Members share the costs and benefits of developing standards, methods, and computer systems to support our work.
  • Contributing and gaining access to innovations. Because we share a common purpose, members of the NatureServe network can collaborate on finding innovative solutions to complex problems.
  • Increasing organizational reach and influence. As a member of NatureServe, your work contributes to solving conservation challenges at national, regional and international scales. NatureServe works to highlight and promote the work of its members through a variety of media. And each year NatureServe recognizes three outstanding member organizations through awards announced at the annual Biodiversity Without Boundaries conference.

There are three levels of membership, representing different levels of engagement, privileges and responsibilities.

Constituent Membership

Any organization using NatureServe’s standard methodology, approving of the objectives of NatureServe, serving the role of using science to inform conservation, and falling into one of the following four categories, is eligible to be a Constituent Member of NatureServe. 

  • Founding Constituent Members. These are the members of NatureServe at the time of its founding in 2000. The list of those entities eligible to be founding Constituent Members appears in Appendix A of the NatureServe Bylaws. Contact NatureServe's Director of Network Relations (703-908-1828; Allison_Gratz@natureserve.org), if you are unclear whether you are a Founding Constituent Member.

  • Subnational Constituent Members. Any organization that operates at the principal subnational level of a country, including states, provinces, departments, or territories, is eligible to be a Constituent Member of NatureServe. There can only be one Constituent Member per subnational jurisdiction. Subnational Constituent Members of NatureServe Canada (a.k.a., the Canadian Section of NatureServe) will be granted constituent membership in NatureServe, subject to ratification by the NatureServe Board of Directors.

  • National Constituent Members. Any organization that operates at the national level is eligible to be a Constituent Member of NatureServe. There can only be one National Constituent Member per sub-national unit.

  • Other Established Constituent Members. Organizations that historically have operated as a part of the NatureServe network, specifically the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Navajo Nation, the Cauca Valley Corporation, and the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre, are eligible to be Constituent Members of NatureServe.

​Applying for Constituent Membership

Associate Membership

Any organization that supports the objectives of NatureServe, is not now a Constituent Member, and that manages data important to NatureServe is eligible to be an Associate Member of NatureServe, based on terms and conditions as determined by the Board of Directors. Institutions created as national organizing bodies for Subnational Constituent Members within a single country are also eligible to be an Associate Member of NatureServe.

Applying for Associate Membership

Contributing Membership

Any organization that supports the objectives of NatureServe, and which is active in promoting science‐based conservation action either internationally, nationally, or sub‐nationally, is eligible to be a Contributing Member of NatureServe, based on terms and conditions as determined by the Board of Directors.

Applying for Contributing Membership