DORIS DUKE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION AWARDS $9.35 MILLION IN NEW GRANTS TO SUPPORT LAND CONSERVATION IN NEW JERSEY

New York, NY, December 16, 1999 - The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation today announced multi-year grants to four non-profit organizations totalling $9.35 million to protect environmentally significant open space in New Jersey, and to improve land use planning. The Foundation seeks to protect a total of at least 10,000 acres of land in Northern and Central New Jersey for use as nature preserves, development buffers, greenways and working farms.

New Jersey and Rhode Island, where a similar set of grants totalling $4.7 million were announced today, are pilot sites of the Doris Duke Metropolitan Land Conservation Initiative. In addition to funding land acquisition and easements restricting development, the Foundation is providing support in New Jersey to strengthen conservation organizations and to support nonprofit organizations engaged in research and technical assistance on such issues as zoning, agricultural protection, open space planning, and promising approaches to conservation funding and long term management of natural areas.

"Our goal is to preserve plants and animals and the habitat upon which they depend and to help increase the quality of life for residents of the nation's most densely populated state," said Joan E. Spero, president of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. "We believe it is essential both to protect special places and promote creative approaches to land use planning that result in a better balance between development and open space preservation."

The Trust for Public Land (TPL), headquartered in San Francisco, and The Nature Conservancy, based in Arlington, Virginia, will together receive a total of $8.4 million to acquire land or easements that restrict development in the Greater Highlands area and Northern Pine Barrens, and adjacent Northern Jersey shoreline. Each organization may also use a total of $200,000 over the next four years from this fund for administrative support. Together, TPL and TNC are required to match the Foundation's $8 million capital contribution with at least $32 million in other public and private funds, in order to protect at least 10,000 acres of critically important watersheds of the Greater Highlands area, as well as the internationally significant habitats of the Pine Barrens. These areas include the following counties: Warren, Sussex, Passaic, Bergen, Morris, Burlington and Ocean.

"This leadership gift will help leverage the public land acquisition funds recently approved by New Jersey voters, and will result in significant protection of land in two of the most ecologically important areas of the Garden State for future generations," said Michael Catania, director of The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey.

"This grant will enable us to assemble the more complicated, critical projects that might not otherwise get done without philanthropic support," said Rose Harvey, Vice President for The Trust for Public Land in New York.

The New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJCF) of Morristown will receive $500,000 over four years to strengthen land trusts and other conservation organizations particularly in the Highlands and Pine Barrens, and increase and diversify constituencies and funding for conservation. NJCF will focus on developing new public and private sources of funding for long-term management and stewardship of acquired lands.

"To preserve significant amounts of land, hundreds of municipalities and nonprofit groups will need technical training and hands-on assistance.," said Michele S. Byers, Executive Director of New Jersey Conservation Foundation. "We are grateful to the Foundation to helping us to increase the capacity of our state's land preservation groups."

New Jersey Future (NJF), based in Trenton, will receive $450,000 over four years to identify, analyze and promote policies that protect flora and fauna while facilitating ecologically sound growth and development. Focusing primarily on municipalities within the Foundation's two priority conservation regions, NJF will conduct research on land use policies, and help educate and train public decision-makers about innovative approaches to land use planning.

 "It's good business to put in place planning and policies that will magnify the capital investments represented by the state's open space funds and the Duke grants," said John J. Degnan, chair of New Jersey Future and president of the Chubb Corporation. "The Duke Foundation's support of both land acquisition and the policy-planning efforts of New Jersey Future are "a one-two punch for smart growth in New Jersey."

The mission of the Foundation's environmental program is to protect and restore the environment and promote the sustainable use of land and other natural resources. To date, the program has awarded $35 million in grants nationally to support land conservation, sustainable forestry and leadership development.

During her lifetime, Doris Duke distributed $400 million, often anonymously, to a variety of charitable causes. When she died in 1993, she left her fortune, including properties in New Jersey, Rhode Island and Hawaii, to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The Foundation is currently developing plans for the preservation and adaptive reuse of Duke Farms, a 2,700-acre property in Somerset County that Doris Duke inherited from her father, James B. Duke. The mission of the Foundation, which was established in 1997, is to improve the quality of peoples' lives by protecting and restoring the environment, seeking cures for diseases and nurturing the arts. With more than $1.5 billion in assets, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, headquartered in New York City, is among the largest philanthropies in the United States.

Contacts: Peter HowelI/Erica Bricking
212-974-7101/7103
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
650 Fifth Avenue, 19th Floor
New York NY 10019
Phone (212) 974-7000
Fax (212) 974-7590