Proactive conservation describes voluntary efforts with the goal of conserving or restoring biodiversity and habitats, focusing on conservation of species primarily in the Lower 48 before they need to be protected through government regulations. Voluntary conservation actions benefit species that are at risk to become threatened or endangered in the future as well as species already designated. Our efforts are designed to create positive outcomes by reducing impact on biodiversity or nature and by contributing to its restoration.

In 2022, ConocoPhillips continued collaboration with strategic partners including government agencies, nonprofit organizations, institutions and conservation groups to:

• Track and reduce barriers essential for migratory bird and terrestrial species survival.
• Conserve and restore habitat crucial for species survival.

Migration

Understanding and tracking wildlife migration is crucial for conserving habitats essential to species survival. Without understanding migratory connectivity, conservation investments can often be ineffective because they are implemented at the wrong place or time, or for the wrong purpose. Further, regulatory or policy decisions based on missing or inconclusive scientific data have the potential to negatively impact our industry.

We support species migration programs including:

• Smithsonian Institution’s Migratory Connectivity Project (MCP) collects information for several bird species of concern that follow a migratory flyway aligned with our areas of operation. Field expeditions in 2022 reconvened across North America (including at Alpine) in the first major return to pre-pandemic travel and activities. MCP deployed 171 tags on 10 bird species, the highest number of individual birds and species ever worked in a single year. A new project builds momentum for grassland bird conservation through a range-wide project involving 23 partners to study the connectivity of iconic prairie birds: Eastern and Western meadowlarks. MCP also completed 11 scientific papers in 2022, and a tag deployed by MCP is on exhibit in the National Air and Space Museum's new exhibit on satellites: One World, Connected. 
• National Fish & Wildlife Foundation’s Improving Habitat Quality in Western Big Game and Migration Corridors Program focuses on conserving habitat and restoring migration corridors needed to maintain healthy populations of pronghorn, elk and mule deer. Since 2019, the program has awarded $11.7 million across 52 projects, leveraging $57.5 million in matching contributions to generate a total conservation impact of more than $69.2 million. This investment has resulted in the protection, restoration and improved management of over 870,000 acres, 670 miles of removed or improved fencing and 307 miles of reconnected migration corridors.

Habitat Conservation and Restoration

We focus our habitat conservation and restoration efforts on:

• Activities to improve and expand habitat size, connectivity and quality.
• Removing encroaching vegetation that negatively impacts grassland-nesting or sage-steppe habitat nesting birds.
• Reducing invasive species.
• Restoring wetland function and restoring important breeding, wintering or stopover sites.
• Working to protect key habitats for birds through support of fee title or conservation easement acquisitions.

ConocoPhillips continues to work with strategic conservation partners to help preserve and protect important habitat for species survival. In 2022, significant progress was made to improve data sharing among conservation groups and conserving grassland and wetlands habitat.

• In 2022, efforts continued to advance the 600 million-acre Central Grasslands Roadmap interactive web map. This collaborative habitat conservation initiative to compile landscape level data pertinent to effective on-the-ground conservation efforts brings together more than 200 conservation nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Indigenous tribes, governmental agencies, policy makers and corporations.
• JV8 Central Grasslands Initiative, represented by more than 63 federal, state, provincial, nonprofit and industry conservation partners, eight of the Migratory Bird Joint Ventures, known as the JV8, have joined forces to stem grassland losses and negative impacts to migratory bird habitat across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. ConocoPhillips has supported five JV8 members, Northern Great Plains JV, Oaks and Prairies JV, Playa Lakes JV, Prairie Potholes JV and Rio Grande JV for many years. To date, they have worked to conserve over 4 million acres.   
• National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF): In 2022, the ConocoPhillips SPIRIT of Conservation program provided more than $1.0 million in direct funding to support six projects, including the completion of a multi-phase project to expand the Motus radio-telemetry network to collect grassland bird migration data across the Great Plains and Chihuahuan Desert and to protect or restore over 7,100 acres of grassland and wetland bird habitat in Alaska, Texas, South Dakota and Wyoming. Since 2005, the SPIRIT of Conservation program has awarded more than $14.9 million to 128 projects resulting in the conservation, restoration or enhancement of more than 528,000 acres.  A preliminary estimate using NFWF’s proprietary carbon benefit estimator indicated these projects are anticipated to generate a cumulative carbon benefit of 69,000 metric tons by 2052.
• NFWF: Pecos Watershed Conservation Initiative is dedicated to restoring and sustaining healthy rivers, streams and grasslands that provide important wildlife habitat in the Pecos River watershed and adjacent areas of New Mexico and Texas. In 2022, $1.5 million was awarded to support nine watershed conservation projects that resulted in the restoration of over 11,000 grassland acres benefiting multiple avian species and improving 49 miles of pronghorn-friendly fencing. Since the program’s inception in 2017, $8 million has been invested into 44 conservation projects.

As the largest private owner of wetlands in Louisiana, we collaborate with Ducks Unlimited to conserve and restore wetlands habitats that threatened and endangered species depend on to live and thrive. Through these efforts, more than 100 wetland acres were restored and over 2,900 acres benefited or were enhanced in 2022. These efforts also provide greater societal benefits by:

• Preserving the land’s ability to protect and nourish the habitats of many wildlife species.
• Protecting seafood, maritime trade, and natural gas and oil industries.
• Protecting local homes and businesses.
• Increasing the quality of commercial and recreational fishing.

Since 2012, these efforts have helped to restore, conserve or enhance over 25,000 acres. Read more about ConocoPhillips conservation activities in Louisiana.

In addition to wetlands in Louisiana, we are stewards of almost 200,000 acres in the Permian Basin where we strive to balance energy production with stewardship of natural resources. Through conservation planning and collaboration with partners including the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Borderlands Research Institute, and Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, we have restored grasslands across over 6,900 acres. Our efforts are focused on Playa Lakes and adjacent uplands, enhancing habitat quality and connectivity for pronghorn, black-tailed prairie dogs, western burrowing owls and other grassland dependent species.

We partner with the Intermountain West Joint Venture to support the Sage Grouse Initiative, an effort by regulators, NGOs, universities and industry to conserve native rangelands for the species. Additionally, we are co-funding a three-year, landscape-scale assessment project to develop a grassland birds conservation plan with recommendations aiming to stabilize grassland bird populations and minimize impacts across the Great Plains.