Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, has pledged $35 million over ten years to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for a new land conservation initiative, the New York Times reports.

Through the Acres for America initiative, a joint public-private partnership with the Arkansas-based retailer, NFWF will purchase or secure conservation easements to 138,000 acres — or at least one acre for every acre covered by a Wal-Mart store, parking lot, or supply center. NFWF will distribute the funds to three nonprofit conservation organizations — the Conservation Fund, the Deschutes Basin Land Trust, and the Arkansas chapter of the Nature Conservancy — that have agreed to match Wal-Mart's donation with their own fundraising.

Approximately $6 million of the $35 million will be spent to protect 312,000 acres of contiguous land between more than half a million acres in New Brunswick, Canada, and 200,000 acres protected by the State of Maine, creating a protected wilderness area of roughly one million acres with more than fifty lakes, 1,500 miles of rivers and streams, and 54,000 acres of wetlands.

"I cannot overstate the importance of this," said NFWF executive director John Berry. "This is like Noah's Ark for Eastern wildlife species, everything from big stuff like moose to frogs and salamanders."