New Research and Community Stories Show the Growing Case for Nature-Based Solutions

Human Nature spotlights solutions protecting water and strengthening local economies, from Arkansas Delta wetlands to Iowa farm fields and Mexican fishing communities

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Walton Family Foundation is expanding its work to advance nature-based solutions, practical approaches that work with natural systems to protect water while strengthening communities and local economies. The focus is part of the foundation's evolving Environment Program strategy, pairing on-the-ground work with efforts to address the policies, financing and market conditions that can help effective solutions grow and endure.

Today, the foundation launched Human Nature, a new storytelling series featuring multimedia case studies showing what that approach looks like in practice. Through stories from Arkansas Delta wetlands, Iowa farm fields and fishing communities in Mexico, the series spotlights how communities are already working with nature to reduce flood risk, improve water quality, strengthen livelihoods and build resilience.

"When we take care of nature and work with natural systems, we are also taking care of people," said Moira Mcdonald, director of the Walton Family Foundation's Environment Program. "These nature-based solutions are already helping farmers keep more topsoil and profit on their land, helping fishing communities rebuild the stocks their livelihoods depend on, and helping people hold on to land that's been in their families for generations. We know these approaches can work. Now the challenge is helping more communities put them to work by bringing together local leadership, investment and policies that make proven solutions easier to adopt and sustain."

Natural approaches also have broad public support and a growing body of research behind them. A 2025 Morning Consult poll found that 80% of Americans say restoring and protecting wetlands to absorb floodwaters should be a priority for state and local governments. A June 2026 study from the University of Georgia's Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems found that when the full range of benefits natural infrastructure provides — including flood reduction, clean water, habitat and recreation — is accounted for, these approaches can deliver returns of up to $8 for every $1 invested.

Restoring Wetlands and Preserving Family Land in the Mississippi Delta
In the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, the foundation-supported Tri-State Conservation Partnership has helped place more than 1 million acres into USDA Wetland Reserve Easements, paying landowners to return frequently flooded farmland to wetlands. The approach lets farmers keep their most productive acres in production while retiring the acres most prone to flooding, restoring habitat and reducing flood risk while keeping land in local hands.

Local partners like The KKAC Organization, an Arkansas Delta land-retention and agricultural organization, help connect landowners, including historically underserved rural communities who have long faced barriers to holding on to their land, with these federal conservation programs.

Financing Conservation on Iowa Farms
In Iowa, the Environmental Defense Fund partnered with CoBank on a sustainability-linked loan with Heartland Co-op. The loan lowers interest rates as farmers adopt cover crops and saturated buffers: financing that has already helped fund 160,000 acres of cover crops and roughly 90 saturated buffers that keep nutrient-rich water out of the water supply.

Elsewhere in Iowa, the foundation is working with the American Flood Coalition to help farmers like Loran Steinlage of FLOLO Farms adopt relay cropping, overlapping crops to keep roots in the ground year-round. The practice cuts erosion, boosts water retention and is estimated to add $51 per acre in farm profit, with the potential to cut downstream flooding by as much as 30%.

Rebuilding Fisheries in Coastal Mexico
On Mexico's Baja Peninsula, NGOs, Niparajá and Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI), have helped fishing communities establish networks of community-run fish refuges, marine zones temporarily closed to fishing to let depleted species recover. Now in continuous operation for 15 years, the refuges have helped rebuild fish populations while training local fishers as scientific monitors. The model has proven durable enough that the Mexican government plans to more than triple the number of fish refuge zones in 2026.

Learn more at: waltonfamilyfoundation.org/human-nature

About the Walton Family Foundation

The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, and their spouses work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. To learn more, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X.

SOURCE Walton Family Foundation