
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994                    TAG: 9406130055 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B4    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940613                                 LENGTH: NASSAWADOX

CONSERVANCY SAYS ECOLOGY IS GOOD BUSINESS \

{LEAD} Make no mistake about it, The Nature Conservancy wants Northampton County to prosper. The environmental group knows that poor people are desperate people who won't care much about protecting marshes.

And the Conservancy very much wants long-term protection for the 43,000 acres of barrier islands, marshes and seaside farms they own in the county.

{REST} So The Nature Conservancy has decided to throw its weight behind Northampton's sustainable development initiative. The nonprofit Conservancy is starting a for-profit company that hopes to create 250 jobs and $13 million in revenues over the next 5 years.

``If two people make money as the result of applying conservation measures, then you begin to understand sustainable development.'' said John Hall, director of the Conservancy's Virginia Coast Reserve in Nassawadox.

Richard Schreiber heads the new company. Schreiber was formerly vice president and chief business officer of Colonial Williamsburg, as well as president and CEO of Colonial Williamsburg Hotel Properties, Inc. He managed 2,500 employees and an operation that generated $120 million annually.

``Business has to become an integral part of conservation,'' said Schreiber. ``It's a natural progression.''

The new company is called the Virginia Eastern Shore Sustainable Development Corp. Investors will provide $2 million in start-up funds, and public stock may be available in the future. The Nature Conservancy is putting $500,000 worth of Eastern Shore farm real estate into corporate kitty as its part of the capital.

Dennis Ackerman, director of the Entrepreneural Center at Old Dominion University, helped put together the new corporation's business plan. He said it will operate under strict rules so that it cannot hurt either the environment or the community.

``Most companies are not set up to have biological and social parameters to work under,'' said Ackerman. ``Most companies do not do that to themselves.''

The corporation will have three operating units: Eastern Shore Products, Eastern Shore Venture Fund and Eastern Shore Lands.

At first, Eastern Shore Products will focus on developing and selling nature-based tourism programs, locally produced crafts and specialty food products, including organically grown produce. Most local growers have resisted organic farming in the past, insisting that they can't make a profit from it. But Ackerman doesn't see that as a problem.

``I'm not worried about convincing them about organic farming,'' he said. ``The success will feed on itself. Farmers will jump on the bandwagon.''

Eastern Shore Products will also do marketing research for low-income people who want to start businesses but don't really know how to get started. It will help them develop business plans and sell their products. In return, the company would get a percentage of the new businesses' profits.

``The potentials are enormous,'' said John Hall, who has been working for months to get the project off the ground. ``With this business, how successful I make you means my success.''

The Eastern Shore Venture Fund will provide short-term business loans, loan guarantees and venture capital to local enterprises that don't harm the environment. At first, the Fund will focus on getting money to businessmen who haven't been able to get financing from conventional sources, like banks.

The third branch of the Conservancy's new corporation, Eastern Shore Lands,will buy, lease and re-sell seaside farm and village properties. In the process, the deeds will be altered with conservation easements.

Profits from the Conservancy's Sustainable Development Corp. will be plowed back into running the Virginia Coast Reserve, Hall said. In the long run, the preserve can't make it on donations, he said. But a stock company like Sustainable Development will make it possible for investors to make money and work for conservation at the same time.

``I think it will succeed because the economy of the Eastern Shore needs what we want to do,'' Schreiber said.

{KEYWORDS} ECOLOGY ENVIRONMENT NATURE CONSERVANCY ECONOMY

by CNB